"QUICK! CLOSE THE DOOR!" Maggy yelled just as Antchaser slipped through. A panting, muddy Garrelt rushed the heavy door and threw his full weight against it. Just as it was about to close, several insectoid legs shot through the opening, thrashing as their owner tried to push their way into the room.

"BACK! BACK YOU FOUL BEAST!" Robert called, a slight crack in his voice breaking through the man's charismatic calm. He stabbed at the creature behind the door with his sword, and it screeched, withdrawing its many legs. The door slammed shut, and all four occupants slid to the ground, muddy and tired but otherwise unhurt.

Maggy splayed out on her back and called out to the ceiling, "What the hell was that?!"

"Ants… lots… of… ants," came Garrelt's response. The man shook like a dog to remove some of the mud covering him, to little effect.

"I know that, you muddy fool! I—" Maggy snapped.

"What I believe Ms. Magnolia means to ask —" Robert cut her off, " — is why were there so many of them? And why did they feel so much more powerful than the ones outside?" The man said, more focused on cleaning the mud and hemolymph off his shiny sword.

"Ya! That!" Maggy responded, pointing toward Robert from her spot on the floor.

Antchaser shook his head and opened his mouth to respond when another voice cut him off.

"Good. You all survived that. Very good," said the large ant sitting near the far end of the nearly identical room to the one they first entered.

"EEEEEEEEKKKK!" Maggy screamed, rolled over, and pointed at the ant. A small red spark erupted from her fingertip and shot toward the creature like an arrow. However, instead of hitting the creature, it impacted a hexagonal energy shield that suddenly appeared around it. The errant spell deflected upward and slammed into the ceiling before exploding into a large fireball and leaving a small crater.

All five occupants of the room stared up at the crater as dust and bits of plaster rained down over the ant.

The ant then looked back down at Maggy. "You're paying for that…" it said flatly.

"Hey… Boss…" Garrelt said as he slowly stood, his hand reaching for his shortsword, "I think I swallowed too much mud… 'cuse that ant just talked."

"I noticed as well…" came Robert's response. The man pointed his own sword at the new occupant and circled around the opposite side of Garrelt.

Before either man could make a move, however, Antchaser stepped forward.

"Lord Alpha! As requested, I've brought help," the goblins said, bowing at the hip.

Robert furrowed his brow, then lowered his sword. "Antchaser, would I be correct in assuming this is our… host?" he asked.

Antchaser turned and motioned to the ant. "May I present Lord Alpha, the Dungeon Core of the Dragon's Garden."

Maggy blinked. "Wait… the Dungeon Core is an ant?!"

"No, it's just puppeting it, girl," Garrelt answered. "It's a fairly common way for Dungeon Cores to communicate… the few that ever bother to."

"Quite," Robert said, lowering his sword. He then bowed, mimicking Antchaser. "I greet you, Lord Alpha, on behalf of Halirosa and the Adventurer's Guild."

Garrelt didn't bother adding more and simply waved while Maggy did her best to disappear, likely still embarrassed by her… outburst.

The ant looked over the group with a frown. How Robert knew the ant was frowning, he didn't know, but that was the distinct impression he got.

"Hmmmm… So these are the ones you brought? I do hope there are more. While what I've seen so far has been rather impressive, I'm afraid it won't be enough," Alpha said.

The atmosphere of the room suddenly grew heavy. It was straight to business, it seemed.

As the leader of both the current team and the expedition as a whole, Robert stepped forward. "I assure you, good sir, that you'll find the Adventurers of Halirosa more than ready to meet any challenge, both of the dungeon's and whatever foul deeds these… bandits have perpetrated," he said before gesturing to the group. "Fear not. The ones you see before you are but a small example of those many talents we have brought to assist you and your plight."

"I see…" Alpha responded. "I hope you aren't talking about that lot outside. They have their own troubles to deal with, at the moment,"

That gave the three Adventurers pause. Even Antchaser gave Alpha an odd look. That wasn't any part of the plan he'd been informed about.

"Is… there something happening we're not aware of?" Robert asked, obvious concern in his voice. Had the village been attacked by the mud-possessed creatures again?

Alpha waved the question off with one of the ant's forelimbs. "Nothing for you to be concerned about at the moment."

Robert begged to differ, but another question pushed its way forward first. "You're aware of what's happening outside the dungeon?"

Whoops… did I already screw this up? Alpha thought to himself.

Garrelt thankfully solved that problem before it became a problem.

The man shot to his feet and pointed to Alpha, his eyes wide. "Bloody hell! You're a growth type!"

Stolen story; please report.

"Huh?" Maggy looked back and forth between Garrelt and Robert, the confusion obvious on her face. "Wait, I don't understand. I thought it was a bad thing for a dungeon to break its bounds? Isn't that the entire reason we're here?"

Garrelt looked over at the young woman and raised a brow. "Girl, you live in the largest Adventurer city in the world. How are you so ignorant about these things?"

Maggy puffed up as she glared at the man, "Well, excuse me for preferring the company of books and ruins to brutish Adventurers who only know how to break things!"

Garrelt didn't respond. Instead, his eyes glanced up at the crater in the ceiling.

"That was an accident!" Maggy exclaimed, her voice slightly higher than normal.

Robert pinched the bridge of his nose. "Would you two kindly refrain from ruining our good rapport before we've even gotten the chance to build it?" he asked.

Both Garrelt and Maggy looked away.

Robert sighed. "To answer your question, Maggy," he continued, "typically, it is a bad thing. Most dungeons are designed in a way that they're self-contained. If they break their bonds, then it means something's gone wrong. A few — extremely rare — examples, however, have shown the ability to extend themselves outward, typically to collect resources or expand if the number of trailtakers exceeds what the maker originally expected. We call these rare few 'growth-types' for their ability to change and grow."

Alpha let the man speak. This was rather good intel for him. None of those he'd interrogated had mentioned these 'growth types' before. The knowledge was likely limited because of their apparent rarity.

Maggy frowned. "Why aren't all dungeons like that? It seemed like it would be advantageous."

Garrelt took up the explanation. "Mostly because of the cost. Typical Dungeon Cores aren't smart enough to look outside their walls," he nodded to Alpha. "Making something like our friend here takes far more resources, with little benefit beyond 'what if' scenarios. Trying to create a dungeon that can expand without having something truly intelligent behind the wheel is how dungeon breaks occur."

Maggy looked like she didn't quite follow, but nodded anyway.

Alpha, on the other, felt like he understood the issue. It was rather synonymous with the Federation's issue when setting up automated systems.

If you already knew what you wanted to do, it was rather easy to set up simple AI routines to maintain even complex systems spanning entire star systems.

But if you wanted things to change, adapt, or improve, you needed an… extra touch. You needed an overseer capable of not just monitoring but thinking — one capable of planning and considering the future.

Alpha bumped up finding a real dungeon higher on his priority list. He was rather interested in seeing one of these 'growth-type' intelligences. From everything he was hearing, they sounded rather similar to Sapient-AI in their own way.

Robert turned back to Alpha. "We're getting distracted, however. What exactly is happening outside?"

Again, Alpha waved them off. "Nothing for you to be concerned about. Your companions have things well enough in hand for now. Think of it as nothing more than a bit of motivation to finish your own mission."

Robert frowned, but didn't push the issue. He knew better than to argue with a Core in its domain.

"And what exactly is it you need us to do, sir? We've heard you have a bit of a… bandit issue?" Robert asked instead.

Alpha laughed. "Oh, the bandits are well and handled. No, it's what those fools released that's the problem."

Robert raised a brow. "I assume this has something to do with the muddy creatures?" It was obvious that while the mud slimes originated from the dungeon, something had gone wrong. Both with them escaping the walls and in how the possessed creatures were spread out. The difficulty spike from the third wave to the first rest area was unreasonably high, at least if the dungeon wasn't trying to eliminate anyone who reached that point.

Their own group had been harassed nearly constantly, leaving little room for rest or retreat, whereas before, they had encountered very few creatures outside of the challenge waves.

Instead of responding immediately, the Alpha-controlled ant turned and walked further into the room, stopping near a screen that hovered in place, just like in the first room.

The Adventurers and Antchaser exchanged looks before following, each taking a seat at a table. Alpha turned around and addressed the group.

"Your bandit friends cause quite a headache for me," as Alpha spoke, the screen flashed on, showing a picture of a large glob of mud floating in a black void. "As you've already guessed, the mud slimes are an integral part of the Dragon's Garden. Both in the story I'm crafting, and in other aspects."

"Like what?" Maggy asked, her hand shooting into the air.

"That's proprietary information. Now, moving on," Alpha shut down the young woman's question immediately. Maggy slumped in her seat.

"As I was saying, they're important to the proper functions of the dungeon. With that in mind, I created something to… help." The screen flashed again, and a new figure appeared.

Maggy pointed at the screen and yelled, "That's the dragon on the door!" All eyes turned to her, and she blushed.

Garrelt stood and approached the screen, observing it from all sides.

"Hmmmm… It looks like a Mud Drake. A young adult, a few centuries old at most."

Alpha raised an antenna. "That's quite astute of you. So you recognize it then?"

Garrelt nodded, "They're rare beasts, for sure, but I've dealt with one or two in my time. None so old or large, however. What's this one at? Middle of [Elemental Dominance]? Hard to tell without a spiritual signature, but given their typical growth rate, I'd guess somewhere around there. You never know with drakes, though. They're called 'Half-Dragons' for a reason."

Alpha nodded, "That will make this simpler to explain then. I've been raising this particular specimen for quite some time. However, that fool Bosco didn't see a key part of the dungeon's design. Instead, he only saw a treasure to steal. Maybe he hoped that whatever power it could grant him would help him deal with his pursuers. Whose to say."

Garrelt barked out a laugh, "Let me guess, the fool bit off more than he could chew and choked on his own hubris?"

"Very much so. Though let me assure you, the Mud Drake had no such choking issues," Alpha responded with a laugh of his own.

He continued. "However, for as much of a fool as he was, the man had his own tricks. Through means I can't discern, the man did something that allowed the Mud Drake to slip from my control… and with it…"

"The mud slimes…" Robert finished the thought.

Alpha nodded. "Exactly. The Mud Drake isn't sapient, but it's smart enough to use the tools given to it. Ever since, it had been waging war outside of the normal bonds of my dungeon in its push against the last chains binding it. If it escapes, not only will it be decades, maybe centuries, until I can get the dungeon back to working order, but a powerful creature with an army of mud slimes will be unleashed on the outside world. I shouldn't need to explain why that's bad."

The group went silent, contemplating Alpha's words. 'Bad' was an understatement. Just from what she'd seen so far, Maggy could imagine the kind of damage something like the mud slimes could wreak if they made it to the surface and started multiplying. They were far more dangerous than typical slimes on multiple levels.

Then put a near-dragon, of a species known to be extremely territorial and violent, in control of them? Ya, that was a recipe for a terrible time.

Robert nodded, seeming to come to the same conclusion.

"I see," he said, "so you need us to eliminate the Mud Drake before it can break free. We would need to see the creature for ourselves to know for certain, but that should be within our power. If not, we can always call for help."

Alpha shook his head and crossed two of his forelimbs. "Nope!" he said. "I don't want you to kill the Mud Drake. As I said, it's an important part of what I'm trying to do here, and its death will set us back a long time."

Alpha grinned. Once more, Robert found it… odd that he could tell the ant was grinning, of all things.

"I want you to capture it."