“Dungeon Repopulation Protocol. That is the name of the leading theory to explain how Dungeon monsters, who have seemingly gone extinct at the hands of adventurers, come back to their original population after a Dungeon’s inactive period.
Much research has been done on the ecosystem of Dungeons, enough to fill several books’ worth. Though not as many books as other subjects due to the difficulty in observing a Dungeon without triggering hostile responses in its inhabitants. But that’s not what this is about.
What’s interesting about this theory is that it doesn’t seek to claim how specifically a monster’s population recovers, but that it simply does so through external and/or magical means.
After particularly heavy raids, notably during Dungeon disarmament, entire species of dungeon monsters on a floor may be completely wiped out. This most often occurs on the first floor, where the hostile response of monsters is strongest. Generally, the species that occupy this level are weak and clustered together, at least compared to those on subsequent floors, and lend themselves best to ambush and swarm tactics.
These qualities compound on each other to make extinction almost guaranteed during larger raids. Yet extinction does not occur, despite several factors.
It has been observed that Dungeon monsters dislike traveling between floors, and prefer to stick to a particular level, usually based on a hierarchy of power; weaker monsters at the top, stronger ones at the bottom. This makes it unlikely that a monster from a different floor could repopulate an empty one.
Also, dungeon walls have been found to be incredibly durable. So much so, that even the highest level [Miners] are unable to pierce more than a few inches into the stone walls. There are many theories as to the barrier material, whether it is mundane or magical, but the leading theory is that exposure to the magical energies that form Dungeon Ossium over thousands of years have led to the inviolable material.
But these unbreakable walls prevent any nests or eggs from being hidden inside them or underground, ruling out the idea of hidden caches for repopulation.
So the only theory left is that repopulation happens supernaturally. Perhaps the force that brings forth Dungeon loot also does the same for monsters? Or maybe the walls themselves can move to reveal hidden egg caches or move monsters between floors? Whatever the answer is, Dungeons will always be just as dangerous.”
-Excerpt from “Dungeons are Weird, and that is Dangerous” by Primoran Torvalds, retired adventurer turned Dungeon scholar
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Life. Death. Rebirth. Click witnessed it all. It wasn’t anything deep, though. In the few months of Click’s life, the spider had seen them all happen to their tribe, and by some strange twist of fate, to the previously extinct [Dungeon Hounds]. While the predators were able to avoid total extinction by… literally popping into existence, the [Dungeon Spiders] only had their strength to rely on. Strength, and Click’s leadership.
[Level Up!]
Dungeon Spider Army Commander (Level 2)
Name: Click
Soul Link: Rockfort Hamlet Dungeon Core Ṁ̶̡̄̒͜o̷͚͍̊͒̃̓̿ǰ̵̧̢̭̫̪a̷͇̋̿̿̽͘ ̵̨̛̥͎͉́̋̈͘D̵̝̭͇̓̎̅ȋ̷̯͔̤̑͋̑t̴̛͉͈̟̽̑͑h̸̪̲̩̗̀̉̃͝͠ä̵͕̼̠́̊̓̕b̴̗͕̏͊̂̓̚ä̷̡̰̱͕̒̌̋
Classes: Anthropologist (4)
Attribute
Amount
Health Points
53
Body
37
Intellect
215
Soul
53
Click strolled through the small corner of the cave that the spiders had claimed and looked at each of the residents running about. [Web Spiders] worked to expand the webs that acted as safe above-ground transport or doted on the insect capturing net that made up the top-most level of the structure. The combat-oriented [Hunter Spiders] were gorging themselves on flies after an arduous hunt or simply relaxing their tired bodies.
It hadn’t been long since most of the newest additions to the tribe hatched, and they were already fighting for their lives. On their own, they would have been turned into kibble long ago, and even with Click leading them into battle, they still would have suffered extreme losses in their juvenile states.
Bored the [Alpha Adult Dungeon Spider] strode along the floor with the corpse of a [Juvenile dungeon Hound] between its mandibles. The weight of the creature did little to slow it down as it trudged towards the web fortress at the back.
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Click lifted their mandibles in the facsimile of a smile. It was thanks to the old guard, the well-evolved spiders that survived everything the dungeon had thrown at them alongside Click, that the tribe was doing as well as it was.
The other veteran spiders followed just behind their largest brethren, their own mandibles twitching as the smell of fresh food wafted from in front of them. Apparently, only the more highly evolved spiders had a taste for meat. The younger arachnids were stuck eating flies and other bugs that wandered into the tribe’s net. It didn’t matter much to Click, as they noticed how the enemies’ corpses eventually gave birth to plenty of flies if left out long enough.
Which was why Bored and the others were quite disappointed when the [Spider Army Commander] had them place a few very edible bodies around the perimeter of their webbed fortress. All of that fresh food, going to waste! At least the other spiders would appreciate… Click realized that they would not.
Oh well.
The lead spider gave off the mental equivalent of a shrug and continued towards the mega web structure. Feeding on the many insects available granted the newborns two evolutions, bringing them from babies to juveniles, and finally to their specialized juvenile states. But rather than simply accept the massive slowdown in level ups, Click took them along to fight the larger creatures that littered the dungeon. And that had nabbed them all another evolution on top of it.
Whenever the spiders collectively killed an enemy, experience was shared out between all of the battle’s participants with a flat reduction when they worked together. That meant, whether it was two or two hundred fighters, they all gained the same number of points.
Click called on their Skill to see the fruits of their labor.
[Observation]
The [Spider Army Commander] shifted their gaze between the many newborn spiders and took in their stat blocks. The evolutions and attributes they saw were all very familiar, but rather than focus on them, Click took a look at their Skill levels.
The [Hunter Spiders] and their variants all had their [Venom Gland] Skill in the high single-digits to early teens, with twelve being the highest level. At first, Click felt a little disappointed at how small the numbers were, but then remembered that it had only been about a day since they all hatched.
Levels seemed to come extremely quickly in the beginning, at least in the [Spider Army Commander]’s personal experience, but they would slow down after the first ten or so.
But what made Click truly happy about their growth was that they reached this number despite the ratio of spiders to enemies. With how much room there was to swarm each [Dungeon Hound], each spider needed to have gotten a piece of the limited space and bitten down enough times to level up. So in reality, they’d made very fine progress in such little time. Their Skill levels still weren’t much compared to the veterans, but they’d definitely catch up in due time.
As for the [Web Spiders], their [Silk Spinning] Skill was a solid notch higher. Eleven was the lowest level Click saw, and the highest was at a whopping twenty one! To be fair, only a single spider had gotten that far; an absolute machine of a [Dungeon Web Spider] that didn’t stop adding to the fortress. In fact, a lot of their new webbing took on a very strange sheen in the soft blue lighting.
[Observation]
Skill Name
Level
Description
Venom Gland
1
Secrete a toxic substance from your mandibles that can harm lesser creatures.
Silk Spinning
21
Secrete a sticky string that can ensnare weaker creatures. Effects of external forces such as gravity are weakened while moving on the substance. Silk can take on the physical properties of ingested substances, converted directly from what is eaten.
Web Senses
7
Instinctively know the identity and position of anything on the web.
What the?
Click looked over the Skill levels and descriptions carefully and tried to piece together the anomaly.
Why does [Silk Spinning] look so different? That last part was never there for the veterans, how come? Hold on, maybe it has to do with [Web Senses]? The level 20 perk the others got in [Silk Spinning] practically does the same thing, so maybe the System gives a different perk to prevent overlap?
Whatever the reasoning behind that perk, and whatever got that spider’s level so high, Click couldn’t help but appreciate the results. The forward-facing portion of the fortress looked sturdier and much more intimidating now. The sheen on the new webbing, the [Spider Army Commander] realized, was identical to the shells of the bugs that landed in the fortress’ nets! The tribe’s defenses were now reinforced by their chitin!
Click couldn’t help but smile, or at least produce the facsimile of one. Things were looking better and better for the spiders, and they were continuously cementing themselves as the dominant faction in the cavern, but there was still the one issue.
The [Spider Army Commander] turned towards the rest of the cave, their many eyes trying to take in the darkness that stretched ahead.
They were supposed to be dead. All of them. Where are they coming from?
It was quite the conundrum, and Click didn’t have any exact answers. Maybe that was just how they were born? Spiders hatched from eggs laid by other spiders, but Click had never seen any [Dungeon Hound] eggs before. And without any additional context on how the world worked, there was no way to come up with any proper theories.
Except…
I never see them being born, they simply pop into existence behind a rock or in the far corners of the cave, away from our eyes. So what if I had some spiders keeping an eye out there? They might observe a predator coming into existence and hopefully be able to show me how it all works. I could do something to stop them then! Or better yet, maybe they only appear when hidden, so maybe our prying eyes will stop the predators from being born altogether?!
It was a plan, or rather, the beginnings of one.
[Command Subordinates]! I need eight [Web Spiders] and just as many [Hunter Spiders]! Get ready to move to a new home!