Andres quickly shouted, “Be careful! I think that one or two of the rats…” However, the rats didn’t give him the time to share his insight with the others.

The rats with a bit of red in their fur were the main ones to attack, as if they understood that they were the most dangerous things here. Andres held his sword and shield at the ready, and many of the party quickly readied for the attack.

There seemed to have been some irony, a joke in some sort of divine comedy, in how Stor was the one that managed to fight and hold off the rats the most. He was like a machine, a monster of brutal efficiency. The others around him weren’t novices either, but these rats were incredibly strange.

The scholar was the one that they needed to protect the most, yet he was the one that was supposed to be in the least danger. As a botanist, biologist, and part-time alchemist, he was critical in understanding the resources within the dungeon. The man had his own cards in his sleeve though, and when Andres turned around he saw the man fading away, a bottle of invisibility potion now empty in his hands before dropping and shattering on the floor.

Yet, the rats seemed to know where the scholar was despite his invisibility. Andres and the rest had to try and defend a man that they couldn’t see, from enemies that could see. More than that, the rats had an impossible sense of teamwork, like someone or something was controlling them and guiding them.

There were many explanations for this. One was that this was created by a crazed wizard, a possibility that he kept coming back to. The problem was that this cave was too boring along with every other piece of evidence. Even when insane, wizards always needed to have a certain gravitas. The other was a dungeon spirit.

Spirits were strange things, but he knew that they liked to be in places with a lot of mana. Andres guessed that these strange forests probably housed spirits of their own; this would be a good reason why there were so many oddities. As dungeons had a lot of mana, and were rumored to form from large concentrations of mana - it would make sense for this dungeon to maybe have a spirit.

That was all he knew about spirits though. He wasn’t anywhere close to the legendary status to fight a spirit and survive, nor was he a wizard or sorcerer that could summon them. Since attacks seem to only come from rats, he guessed that the spirit couldn’t fight them itself. He prayed to the gods that he was right about that.

One of the party members, a brute with a large shield, failed to dodge one of the rats with a bit of red and got bitten. The man yelled from the pain and sent the rat flying into the nearest stone wall, which didn’t seem to injure it as much as he would have liked. Andres keenly watched the man for what happened next, but nothing seemed to happen.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

For a moment, he thought he had misjudged something. Maybe those rats weren’t infected with the red mushrooms. Maybe it took some more time to get devoured from the infection than the corpses suggested. Unfortunately, his judgment was soon proven correct.

The brute screamed and faltered as scarlet lines grew underneath his skin. From the bite wound, ruby fuzz and stalks emerged from the skin and consumed the man alive. It was horrifying seeing a man that was alive and well not long ago dying in such a horrible way.

Thankfully, their fight managed to get them close enough to the exit. The scholar, from what he could tell, managed to escape the dungeon with the sample. Now, they just needed to fight the rats off. Some of the party were bitten and became paralyzed - he would have to leave them behind.

Thank the gods, he managed to escape. He looked around and realized that the madman Stor managed to survive too, though it looked like his insanity and madness came back with brutal force. Still, in his eyes was a predatory edge of sanity and clarity.

They all rushed back to the village. Andres had seen a lot in his life, but he would be lying if he said he would sleep soundly tonight.

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Alex felt like he had collected quite the bountiful harvest. There were several adventurers caught and killed, and even better, a bit of the blood rot was collected and taken outside. He hoped the adventurers would figure out the mushrooms magical properties, so that more people would be attracted back.

Now, though, he was in a difficult position. He wanted to upgrade his dungeon core to level three and finally get a second floor, but he also needed more animals for his dungeon. He debated with himself over and over before relenting and upgrading his dungeon.

While it was more risky, it was a necessary risk. Having a second floor was good for security and was necessary for more dungeon monsters. Due to the unique problems he had to deal with, his ecosystems were rather unorthodox. This wasn’t a problem that adding more variables could fix.

For the moment, his ecosystem was in enough of a balance. However, that could change quickly if a species mutated. He would just have to pray that it stays stable long enough.

Level three still had a long enough period to feed his dungeon core, so he wouldn’t have to worry too much. Especially since he filled the soul tax recently. This risk was well worth a second floor.

Something that he realized was that his monsters were bioweapons that he would have trouble controlling after the charm period ended. Floors, though, can be used to keep monsters from going crazy without direct control. Binding dungeon monsters to a floor, a relatively cheap ability, contained monsters and species.

In other words, if he bound the blood rot to the second floor, the species wouldn’t be able to be on the first floor. When dealing with monsters, this was very important. He didn’t want to keep the blood rot, rotten rats, and shell bugs on the first floor - they were dangerous and would scare away adventurers.

Alex bit the bullet and upgraded his dungeon core.