Jasper was lurking in her favourite perch, she watched the outside world from the entrance of her dungeon. She was getting frustrated, everyone had been beating her undead. Even the centaur’s serfs, the farmers, admittedly the latter refused to enter her heart chamber, but it was still frustrating.

And now there was this argument taking place just outside her entrance. At first sight it looked ridiculous, but, the guards supplied by the adventurer’s guild were taking it seriously. They actually seemed scared of the absurd little duck man.

He was a feathered humanoid and just over one meter tall. Metallic green plumage covered what she could see of his head under the black painted helm. He had a large duck like bill and he wore open sandals on his webbed feet. He had arms, not wings and the feathers she could see on the rest of his body were a soft brown. His armour was either dyed or painted black depending on if it was leather or metal.

He kept stating excitedly that he was a Sword of Armalor and as such it was his duty to eradicate the abomination that was undeath.

Then to Jasper’s shock the opening of the dungeon flowed and it sealed itself. After a frozen instant, Jasper fled back to the core room. She found Vlad’s glow dimmed, and she came close to panicking until a piece of implanted knowledge surfaced in her mind. Vlad was experiencing his first Integration.

Jasper bit her lip, she knew that this was a potentially danger point in a dungeon core’s existence. But she couldn’t fathom why it was happening now, this point usually occurred after the core had created something... And as far as she was aware, all they had done was summon established mobs and create a minimal dungeon.

She settled down to wait.

* * *

Vlad was getting bored. All he was being asked to do was recreate the zombies and skeletons that were proving so very unsuccessful. And somehow he was starting to think, rather than just react. He felt himself approaching a threshold of sorts but ignored it.

Currently he was poking at the little snail that had arrived in his dungeon in the bony chest cavity of one of his skeletal mouse scouts. He found the little scurries more interesting than his guardians.

Rather absently he sought out the little creatures needs, then he went shopping in the dungeon store. A function he had recently stumbled on out of sheer boredom. Slowly and carefully Vlad installed a secret door in the wall behind his core, using it hide a short corridor. At the end of this corridor he carved out a large cave and apart from a dry strip near the entrance filled it with a marsh surrounding a dirty pond.

He sent his scouts out to look for things suitable for his new cave. While he waited he filled the dry area with his moss and after absorbing the snail spawned a score of them in their new home.

Then he experimented.

Over the following weeks he was able to fill his playground with assorted vegetation. The snails meanwhile grew and grew, Vlad found they assimilated darkness with ease, and when sufficiently infused with darkness they were able to absorb fire. The failures tended to explode spectacularly, that and burn. He liked that and had managed to influence some of them to explode on death.

And then it was time. Vlad felt all his attention dragged inward into the heart of his core. In a near panic he instinctively sealed his entrance. He found the reservoir of odd energy his visitors had been giving off and wove it to his mana. Vlad’s glow dimmed and as he entered a dormant state, he selected the form that felt right to him and worked to achieve it. When Vlad woke again his core possessed ten facets.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

« (Vaspedian) »

Vaspedian checked and double-checked his paperwork. He was mortally sick of this new posting in the ass end of nowhere. It didn’t require a man of his standing and he was doing his best to find a replacement.

He had received word the Raptors were on their way back from one of the centaur scouts. He grinned reflexively as he remembered the story the centaurs told of the valiant fight against the baby skunk. Pity everyone knew that one or it would make great blackmail material.

The entrance flap of his pavilion tent was flung aside and Tarwin Silverbeak came storming in. Vaspedian rolled his eyes and fought to control his expression before looking at the irate duck. Honestly for such tiny humanoids ducks were incredibly touchy and easy to anger. It always surprised Vaspedian that they weren’t rarer than they were.

“Yes lord Tarwind, what can I and the Adventurer’s Guild do for you today?”

“You can open that abomination of a dungeon and allow me to exterminate it in the death god’s name!”

Vaspedian regarded the bristling death cultist and sighed. “I only manage the dungeon. You need to seek permission from Silvanna Ironhoof. She is the representative of the Great Khan of the centaurs.”

Tarwin stamped his feet in a fury, “The bitch is in talks with the filthy Dark Trolls, the undead lovers... She’ll never accede to good sense.”

“So you want me to defy a Hero so you can exterminate a minor dungeon? One that has provided several units of iron?” asked Vaspedian sarcastically even as he prepared himself to jump to his feet.

The irate duck seemed to deflate, Tarwin even looked apologetic for a few seconds. “Well no... But I hoped... You are a sensible man, you know the time will come when this dungeon will have to be destroyed.”

They were interrupted by the pavilion’s opening being once again flung open, this time by the Raptors. Hainrick strode in without a by your leave. He eyed Tarwin with disfavour. “Guild Master, you will have to make the stinking elves listen. They have a dangerous dungeon that needs to be managed or culled.”

“Can’t be worse than this pit of corruption,” interjected Tarwin.

Vaspedian restrained himself, “The elves have other resources, they have members of the Adventurer’s Guild. They can bypass me. Besides, I have not been asked to check their dungeon.”

“The Rose dungeon is overfull of life and its entrance is combined by a major river and waterfall that help spread its influence. It needs to be restrained. The elven forest is growing. It has already gained one kilometre and has scattered groves covering a further five. It is a destabilising force. Change is bad.”

“Change happens. Just look at the Empire of the Blood Moon.”

“The Lunars are Chaos worshiping heretics,” half screamed Tarwin even as Hainrick nodded and said, “True.”

“So you want to shove the elves into the Empire’s arms?” asked Vaspedian.

The Raptors and Tarwin exchanged looks and looked unhappily at Vaspedian. “Look, the Rose dungeon is going to get stronger and it will help the elves spread their forest. Its challenges are fairly feeble but its traps are diabolical. It has a party killer on the first level. It merits being controlled or destroyed.”

“I take it the elves didn’t agree with you?” asked Vaspedian.

“They didn’t listen to us. They only allowed us to evaluate it due to existing treaties. I suspect they have an agreement with the dungeon and its companion fairy. They are the one who told us the dungeon’s name,” explained Hainrick.

Tarwin snorted contemptuously, “These foothills were ceded to the elves by treaty. If the dungeon will allow them to spread their forest over them, then the only way to stop them would be through war. And the Centaurs are wary of the Dark Trolls and Rock Folk who live in the higher mountains.”

“Well if you are too blind to see the danger I will take our observations and warnings to the Master of the Guild. Maybe I can get nominated Guild Master of the elves' new dungeon town.”

Vaspedian shook his head slowly. “And pigs might fly,” he offered.

* * *

Under the far corner of the pavilion, in a small half collapsed burrow a little skeletal mouse watched and listened.

« (Jasper) »

Jasper knew instantly when Vlad woke. “Welcome back Vlad, ten facets! Congratulations. Does that mean you’re ready to create our second level?”

« Yes Jasper. I can do that. I could use the skeletal knights. »

“Cool! Hey you are speaking better. Good,” enthused Jasper.

« Um, why is your name Jasper? Shouldn’t it be Jasmine or something like that? »

Jasper stiffened in indignation and her face grew flinty. “My parents named me. I’m Jasper regardless of anything else!”

« Fine. I was just curious Jasper. »