Franklin finds himself emerging from the trunk of a large tree, his vision initially a purple hue until he steps free of the portal. Having done so, he notices that he is now in a moderately dense forest, humid and warm, light raining down from the canopy above. Below, he feels the cool seep of moisture soaking into the hem of his pants, the water level rising to just above his ankles. He bends over, dipping a finger into the green-tinged liquid before bringing it back into his mouth, sampling it with his tongue. It tastes of dirt, but more importantly, there is a distinct lack of salt, indicating a freshwater source. Glancing around at the trees, he proceeds to run them against a mental catalog of images. Through this search process, he identifies that they are tupelos, a deciduous with triangular shaped trunks that rise high into the air before branching out with a smattering of vibrant green leaves that catch the ray of light from above. Taken together, freshwater and tupelos, Franklin decides that he has ended up in a freshwater swamp of some kind, and a message notification a moment later corroborates his conclusion, reading:

You have entered Paradosa Swamp.

Franklin begins to move to higher ground, where swampwater transitions into soft mud, his feet making obscene squelching sounds with each step that he takes. He notices two aspects that are strange about his new surroundings. First, despite the area being permeated by radiant light, there is no sun in the sky above, as far as he can tell. Second, there are no signs of wildlife, no insects buzzing, birds chirping, fish swimming. Oh, and of course the obvious… he’s no longer in a cave.

He glances briefly back at the portal embedded in the tree, leading to once he came, a message hovering above reading:

Portal To The Dungeon: Franklin Steiner

Then turning inward, he wonders aloud, “Hm, particle reconstruction? A wormhole? I mean, I was expecting something labeled as a ‘portal’ to lead me to somewhere else, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise but... this seems like an entirely different biome… Just how far have I traveled from my dungeon? Or rather, is distance even the correct measurement here...?” His question suddenly prompts something to come to mind, a diagram he had seen in the manual. “That’s right, this planet…”

Franklin closes his eyes, recalling the image. It is of the planet upon which he has reincarnated. Its name, he remembers reading, is Arcadia, and it was drawn as a series of concentric spheres, three in total. The manual had labeled them, from innermost to outermost, The Outside, The Dungeon, and The Wilderness. And now having discovered both The Dungeon and The Wilderness, he feels he has a clearer understanding of what the diagram represents.

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Speaking aloud to himself, he begins to work through what he currently knows.

“Hm, initially, I thought the picture was referencing something like Earth’s geological structure, what with a core, mantle and crust… three layers but one contiguous mass. Looking at this place though, this The Wilderness, it’s pretty clear Arcadia is quite different. I mean, The Dungeon is obviously not equivalent to Earth’s mantle. Like, in the most pedestrian sense, it’s not filled with molten magma. So… is The Dungeon also part of Arcadia’s ‘crust’? But the picture had made it seem that The Dungeon is distinct from The Wilderness. So, are there two ‘crust’s then? And what about The Outside? How does that factor into all this? Is it also not a molten core, but something else?

Hm, it is a shame that I couldn’t portal to it, at least not right now, or that would have provided some very useful observational data… I mean, the manual is good and all for a basic outline of things, to get a general sense of what’s going on, but the details in it are… well… lacking. It didn’t exactly explain Transmute very well, and… case in point, all I really remember it saying about The Wilderness is simply that it’s the largest of the three layers… And I mean, I had to learn through an error message that Incorporate Land is associated with it… Though speaking of which… Let’s give that whirl too, since I'm here. [Incorporate Land].”

A brief delay later, and he is greeted with the message:

Error 43. Please try again.

“This again?” he groans, “‘You do not have sufficient levels to perform this action’. Why is everything being locked behind a paywall…? Okay, looks like I really need to get that experience for the levels…”

Giving up on trying to incorporate the land, Franklin goes back to exploring his environment some more. He returns to the edge of the swampwater, squats down, and digs his fingers into the dirt besides the water, grabbing a chunk and lifting it into the air. He inspects the substance, sniffs it, then rubs it between his fingers a few times. The material is slick and pasty, with a reddish brown hue and an earthy scent. His eyes light up when he realizes what the material is.

I was already going to Transmute for it, but this’ll serve as a pretty nice backup, just in case. After all, the industrialization must go on!

As he’s thinking this, Franklin notices ripples suddenly appearing in the pond before him. His instinctive reaction is to step back from caution. Having yet to encounter any other creature in The Wilderness so far, he is thus unsure as to what dangerous monster might emerge. And to its credit, what creature does emerge does cause Franklin to open his eyes wide with surprise, but not so much due to the danger it appears to present, but rather, due to the novelty, for it is something which surely does not exist on Earth. What rises out of the water, covered in duckweed, is a gelatinous-like creature, green and semitransparent, with an amorphous shape about the size of a basketball.

Above the creature, a message appears.

You have discovered Swamp Slime. Creature entry has been added to your bestiary.