“I enter as dungeon lord!” Ty—Baron Tywyndyll il Belmoria—called out as he took his first step onto the stair that led into the Dryad Dungeon. He felt the flux in the magic as he entered. It was subtle, but he recognized it after so many trips to his dungeon, both to adventure in it and to see it’s boss monster—Saelenia, known as the Crone.
It shifted the magic of the entrance tunnel so he would enter the core room, and not the dungeon itself.
He gave a last wave of his slightly brown hand—which, even nearly a year after his change from pale skinned elf to wood skinned dryad, still came as a surprise. He was waving to his friends and the crowds outside, in the Grand Plaza of the city of Star Port, his home. Then he descended carefully into the dark.
Very carefully. Ty was carrying two fifty-pound bear claws—the claws of Forilveltain, the primeval bear, dead for tens of thousands of years. He also had a backpack with a bunch of gear in it, and a spear strapped to his side—the gear of the ancient one hero named Zar’Kre’Rusth.
Ty, who was Level Eleven, far higher than most people ever made, had massive amounts of power available to him. But it took specific forms: his lightning magic, shielding magic, and his giant Health pool. He hadn’t added a single one of his leveling stats to his Strength, Agility, or Dexterity.
As a result of his focused build, ‘not falling down the stairs’ was consuming a lot of his attention. Ty staggered under the weight, carefully stepping down each step of the narrow stairs. After about three flights of stairs, Ty finally managed to awkwardly walk into the cavern that made up his boss room, and the core room of his dungeon.
The cavern was mostly boring, a stone cavern with a few stalagmites and stalactites and some bioluminescent mushrooms providing light. But three features, and the only inhabitant, all stood out.
At the far end of the cavern were two of the features and one of the inhabitants. Saelenia, once known as the Crone, sat in an oversized wooden throne on the far end of the cavern. The throne was barely noticeable when dwarfed by the twelve-foot-tall wooden dryad. She had pine board skin, green leaf hair, and was naked. Gloriously naked, more fertility goddess in appearance than anything. Which wasn’t the farthest from the truth—Saelenia was a ‘progenitor,’ which was a proto-god that hadn’t ascended to full godhood and inhabited the realms of the gods yet. She was the ‘Mother of Dryads,’ and all the dryads of the Kingdom of Averia—in fact, on the entire continent of Beldin, as far as anyone knew—had been birthed by Saelenia.
Including one of Ty’s lovers, the dryad Forli. Even though Ty had just left her, his lip quirked into a half smile at the thought of her. She would bear the first dryad ever created in these parts that wasn’t descended from Saelenia soon—Ty’s own daughter. Ty’s race as a master Dryad allowed him to ‘impregate’ dryads.
“Youngling, are you seriously lost in your own thoughts even as you enter the dungeon with the claws of a dead progenitor?”
Ty started, glancing up to see Saelenia standing, towering out of her throne to her full twelve-foot height, and then striding toward him.
But she wasn’t done berating him. “What could be so important a thought that you can’t spare your dungeon boss a hello? Children have no respect for their elders these days.”
I’m banging your daughter was the actual thought she had interrupted, but it didn’t strike Ty as politic to say so. He knew that Saelenia, who was over ten thousand years old despite her new youthful appearance, had the personality of a crotchety old great-grandmother that had seen it all before and was tired of your shit to boot.
“Just thinking about life. It’s been a crazy three days.”
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“I heard a tiny bit from the adventurers, about how Helryn tried to summon a remnant of the ancient one’s god, Xalkri, and you stopped him. Was that the truth?”
Ty walked toward his goal in the center of the cavern—The lecturn that was the physical manifestation of his control over the dungeon. It was a stone tablet that rose from the ground, coming to sternum height on Ty. Vines wrapped it. The tablet was cracked and broken, but the vines were new and sprouted flowers that glowed faintly with beautiful pink bioluminescence.
As Ty approached, magical etchings, glowing in a bioluminescent green that clashed a bit with the flowers, formed on the tablet, becoming words of Middle Averian. Ty had seen it many time before, of course, but he never failed to enjoy the power of his dungeon manifesting in front of him. Ty stared down at the familiar table of contents for a second.
Ty paused in his examination and dumped the two claws and the hero’s gear onto the floor. It was heavy, and he preferred to peruse his dungeon with leisure. His skin didn’t hurt where the gear had pressed into it—benefit to his new race as well—but he still needed to stretch out his muscles after the brief few minutes of heavy lifting.
As he did, Saelenia reached out and touched him. The power of her only magic, Wyld, poured into him, a brief sense of natural vigor and health, along with the faintest sense of running joyfully though a forest. All his aches and pains disappeared, as well as his exhaustion.
“Thanks,” Ty said, smiling up at his boss monster. “I didn’t think you could interact with me when I was here as dungeon lord.”
“‘Can’t attack’ you youngling, not ‘can’t interact,’” Saelenia said, emphasizing the two phrases in an obvious manner.
“Well, if I’m ever seriously hurt, I’ll keep it in mind,” Ty said, smiling. “For now, however, I wanted to work on the dungeon.”
Saelenia waggled her finger at him. “No no, youngling. I asked you a question. First, you tell me what happened. I only heard the absolute basics.”
“How about I give you a quick overview, and in return, we build the next room? I went to a huge amount of trouble, and suffered a ton of fear and pain, to get these progenitor parts. I really want to see the next room options.”
“You lack patience… but have it your way, youngling. Give me the forest, leaf out the trees.”
And now she’s making bad puns. Despite her new body, an old person she remains, Ty thought to himself with a slight giggle.
Saelenia cocked an eyebrow at him, and he coughed. “So, I did as you said—I followed the maps you gave me into the undercity of the old ones beneath Star Port while the king was clearing out the temple district. We found a few fights with corrupted magical beasts, and nearly made a level.”
She waved her hand, obviously bored.
Weren’t you the one that just wanted details? “We were ambushed by a goblin tribe, and between your maps and the guide we, um, ‘recruited,’ we made it down to the temple of Xalkri, the ancient one god of magical alteration. It was on a huge ritual, and we found Ivy and DAlryn’s dad there, conducting the summoning.”
“And how did your lover and her brother take their dad summoning and elder evil?” Saelenia asked sardonically.
“Ivy took it about the same as always—she sees good in everyone, even the dad that beat her regularly. But Dalryn… well, he’d had enough. Declared he wasn’t a part of the family anymore.”
“I bet that went over well,” Saelenia said with a snort.
Ty chuckled. “He made the declaration after the fight. We fought Dalryn and his ally, a demoness, and their minions, the Grayshore family. Only Helryn walked away, and I slew the demoness myself.” Barely. But still.
“What level was she?”
“Thirteen—and I was nine at the time.”
Saelenia’s eyebrows raised. “Very nice, youngling.”
Ty gave her another smile. “Thanks. Anyway, I next used the magic connection you and I share to drop the barriers protecting the treasures of the temple and took the magical items of the ancient one hero and the claws of Foriveltain.”
Ty frowned. “Why were they there, anyway? I didn’t think you were fond of the gods of the ancient ones. Actually, I thought you hated them.”
Saelenia shrugged, an awesome gesture. “It was a deal with the priests of Xalkri. When my lover died, I wanted him honored by his people—so I gave them the treasures to be displayed at the temple in return. At the time, I was hopeful that like him, his people could reform. I was disappointed. Honestly, I can barely remember any details past that.”
“Makes sense, I suppose,” Ty muttered. “Anyway, is that enough of an overview for you?”
Saelenia nodded. “I suppose it’ll do, youngling, if you’re that determined to build the dungeon.”
Ty gave her a joking glare. “I watched Ivy—my love—get a sword stabbed through her to get these calws and make sure this dungeon was as strong as it could be. Not to be rude, but I’m gods’ cursed ready to build the best dungeon floor anyone has ever seen.”
Saelenia snorted. “Well, when you put it like that…”