Something unusual pulled at my attention. I briefly stopped working and focused on figuring out what it was. It didn’t take long to know what the source was.

Something had entered my mini Dungeons. Or to be morel exact, someone.

And as I observed to see what the outcome would be, I realized it was many someones. In multiple Dungeons. In fact, it was a whole three Dungeons.

I was damn lucky that they had found the three Dungeons connected by the Dungeon network and not the other newer ones. Not sure if I could have defended those.

As it stood right now, I had a sea of options before me.

Not only did having the Dungeon network give me many more options for monsters for each Dungeons, it also meant that the actual Dungeon Seeds were hidden much deeper and better than one would expect from a young Dungeon.

Either way, I’m not a monster. I control monsters.

It’s time to give them a warning shot. They really shouldn’t be here at this stage of the apocalypse. I sent one of my more intimidating monsters after them.

One group, the first that had entered one of my Dungeons and had a sizeable head-start, rounded a corner and stumbled upon a large and open cavern. The floor was dotted with boulder both large and small, the ceiling sported the occasional stalactite.

Like the amateurs they were, they split up to quickly map out the room. Which is a shame. This was the room I’d decided to place my deterrence.

One unfortunate squad happened upon it. They were casually exploring, just like everyone else, when they walked around a boulder and spotted it. And it spotted them.

A large beast, taller than a Sipalian and weighing as much as at least ten of them. It was a fusion of a rat and a bear, with a little something extra that I’d thrown in. The – rat bear? Bearat? Brat? Raer? Berat – was, among other things, adjusted to be able to walk on its hind legs.

It wasn’t anything elegant, but it worked. Especially for intimidation.

Soon, the team that had found my creation ran away screaming. The berat gave chase.

Naturally, such a loud noise in such a confined space will stand out. Which will then draw the attention of everyone else in the room. At which point all the other members of the expedition would see the monster chasing some of its members, and then they’d have a choice to make.

For a few, it was easy. They hadn’t gone that far into the cavern and so they simply fled in the nearest direction, the exit tunnel.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

But those who were much further in? They had to decide if they wanted to risk the longer run to the exit, or to escape the giant monster by a different tunnel.

I admit, perhaps this was a bit my fault. I should have known something like this would happen and put the berat into a different section of the Dungeon. But what’s done is done and the Sipalians made their choice.

Most rushed for the exit, where they were then chased by the berat until outside. Only a few decided to hide further inside the Dungeon.

Naturally, a monster would usually catch a mundane person with barely any effort. But this wasn’t a defensive monster. It was a deterring monster.

I’d designed it specifically to be just slow enough that it’d stay just on your heels. That’s actually where most of its weight came from. Well, that and-

The berat’s back split open like a gruesome eldritch mouth and out came tentacles.

-yeah, that. What can I say, I’m still experimenting with what’s possible. I never said it was designed purely for scaring off intrepid explorers. Sometimes one needs to experiment and play with what is possible. And then it will turn out that horror tentacles inside a bear are very much within the realms of possibility.

But enough about that. The Sipalians who had chosen to run in the opposite direction met a much more gruesome fate than being scared away. Not that I knew it would happen, I’m not even sure I could’ve stopped it.

The deeper they went into the mini Dungeon, the higher the ambient mana density increased. It was just a natural fact of Dungeons, like the fact that warm air rises and cold air sinks.

What I didn’t know was what such high mana concentrations can do to a living being.

I’m unsure if I’ve ever mentioned it, I feel like I have, but Sipalians have a certain ability. Not capital A Ability, not even really a superpower, but it’s close. They are able to draw minerals their bodies need from the ground through their legs. This usually just creates a sort of crust around the appendages, a sort of armour. Just a harmless side effect.

The mana supercharged this effect.

Almost in real time, the ground beneath them became less rocky and more of a fine earth. Then the worst part came.

With the sudden influx of minerals, their bodies began to expel as much of it as they could. The crust, that rock armour, began to grow all over their bodies. But the legs were too close to the source and couldn’t keep up.

Veins of rock and mineral began to solidify inside the legs.

Only a few minutes in and the unfortunates who ran deeper into the Dungeon were already trapped. The rock armour had no idea segments, already limiting mobility greatly. Once the legs began to calcify though, they truly became immobile.

Death came soon after, a combination of suffocation and organ failure from the slowly spreading calcification from the legs.

I’ve made a mistake.

It doesn’t matter whether they entered by their own will, sometimes things are forbidden for a reason. I needed to ensure this wouldn’t happen again. I needed to figure out a way to block anyone without System access from Dungeon delving.

Otherwise, I’d become an evil myth and revenge crusades will be launched against me.