Nothing could have been more important to Snail Mail. I mean Snyl and Mael. Mael and Snyl. There we go.
They had to get back to the Guild, and they needed to have already been there hours ago! Who knows how long ago Leldro had started being an idiot. They wouldn't even take a break or rest. That could wait until they collapsed.
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The dungeon confirmed the placement of its Core in one of the mudholes in the next room. 'Alright then screw it! I'll claim the whole building and everything left in it to turn it into mana if nothing else!' As he started touching the walls, he didn't get any messages.
'What? I can only claim parts of buildings if it's new? No, I'm not going to give up! I'm a human, damn it!' He reached out and touched one of the blacksmith house's other walls, and got a message that time.
[Special Construction discovered: Mouse Hole Wall]
'Oh, so it is a mouse. If those small people think a rodent as big as a rat is a mouse, then what's a rat? Oh, I don't know, a useful fuckin' monster that I can attack that douchebag with, that's what!'
He walked around the back of the smith house, but hadn't really cared about the door in the back he had seen earlier. 'This is like, an employee only door, right?', he asked himself. He reached out and touched it anyway.
[Special Construction discovered: Exit Door]
'Six hours. Six more hours of this pain in my damn ribs and freakin' me out and probably making me starve or something too!'
It was difficult for him to walk over, around, and under the various pieces of loot, furniture, and building parts that had settled in, on, and around the smith's house. Luckily, the distortions didn't separate the dungeon's resources from its territory, but it threatened to in a few places.
It had started to distort and crack in random places around the room, as long as they were exposed to non-dungeon space. The only territory wall that could even be relied on at this point was the one that faced the mudholes and yucky-looking water.
'Actually what makes you so disgusting?', he asked himself. Ducking around a thick indent from the wall behind the smith's house, but before he could go back to the mud room, he saw something. A mosquito, sitting against the back wall of the smithy. 'Store! You'll be useful! Talk about a guardian! Just need a few thousand of you.'
But there was only one. In the mud room though, he saw what it was that was making that part of the water look so gross. It was a film of some kind. He touched it. 'Store!', he shouted.
Now that it was gone, he saw something under the water. It looked bigger than just the part that was visible... 'Store?'
[Construction Discovered: Tombstone with Epitaph]
Feeling around the mud with his feet, trying to find something else to tap or kick, he only found one other thing. Once that was stored, he decided to do something strange. He walked over to the shouting man hurting him, and listen. After a couple hours, the dungeon got a message.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
[Magic Attribute discovered! Divination Magic]
[Divination Magic spell discovered: Purge]
[Purge added to research.]
[Select resource to inscribe with Purge]
'I don't have anything to write on that I can get access to since you won't let me open my wallet and I'm not using that book. It might be useful somehow still. Just wait for me to have something, just like with the wooden floor, okay?'
There was no response.
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Hours later, two very tired frontiersmen had entered town, and while struggling to catch their breaths, they made a plan.
Mael spoke first, if you could call it that. "I'll go find the closest farmer and get them to let us use their goanies." He took several ragged, deep breaths. "You go get the Guild. Get the Ministry, too."
Snyl nodded. "Yeah. Okay. Drink and sleep on the ride back."
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Melisande hugged the young man. "You're a good son to help your father like this", she said.
He nodded. "Thank you, miss. I'm not strong enough to clean it all by myself yet."
She smiled, and looked to her side as someone came running. "I", he started to say between hard breaths, "need your goanies."
The young man looked surprised. "I'll get my father for you."
"There's no time", Mael tried to say, but it was now just him and the girl. "For that", he finished.
"What's going on?", she asked.
"A new dungeon appeared", he said, "in Bogsreach. Leldro is attacking it. It's losing."
"He's what? Why do you- no, what are you planning to do?"
"Stop him. Gotta stop him. With help."
The young man's father came out of the house. "What's all this about taking my goanies?"
Melisande explained the situation so Mael could try and catch his breath properly, and the seriousness of the situation and slowness of initial recognition and reaction were apparent to all present. The boy remained inside as he had been told.
"Alright. Take them. Bring them back uninjured, and don't take them into the dungeon!", the farmer threatened.
Mael just shook his head. Melisande stepped in. "I will go with them. No harm will come to them. You have my word."
Assurances given, four creatures, the size of horses to the natives, but looking like goats, were led to the Exterminators Guild hall. The clattering of their hooves on the hardened earth was louder than anyone else's footsteps.
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Snyl burst through the door of the guild hall loudly, waking up everyone present, even if they already were. "Snyl, watch the door! You could break it off its hinges like that!", the quest presenter yelled at him.
"Doesn't matter!", he yelled as he tried to catch his breath. "New dungeon."
"Priority quest!", she screamed as she walked haughtily towards the table with two sleeping guild members. "Everyone up! Dungeon expedition!", she yelled again. grabbing a sleeping woman by the back of her leather armor's collar, yanking her off the bench and onto the floor where she heard a thud.
"No time!", Snyl yelled again. "Dungeon's being destroyed. Get there mounted or never!"
There weren't many people around that had access to any mount, unless they rode on each other's shoulders, and that wouldn't help anyone.
"I'll do something!", the presenter yelled back as she gave a heavy sucker punch to the man still trying to sleep off his hangover.
Snyl left, and went across the way to the Ministry of Truth.
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"If all of the elderly and dispossessed are fed for the day, then send some acolytes to provide aid and payment to the miller", the priest said to his apprentice, who nodded.
The door burst open with a loud thud, startling the two.
"Sorry", Snyl said. "Leldro found a dungeon and is destroying it with magic. Do you have any mounts?"
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Moments later, Melisande, Snyl, and Mael had started their way out of town. They hadn't yet begun to press their steeds, since the grass outside city limits was softer than the dirt was, and they'd need to slow down again once they got to the supremely uneven bog.