------------- Dungeon Storage Room, Exterminators Perspective -------------
The five exterminators stood with their backs facing the doorway and their varied weapons out in a fan-like pattern. The four of them who still had torches looked down to light them for just a moment, then looked back up again to see what the light revealed.
The "Wooden Floor" and "Mouse Hole Wall" were not angled like those things should be, but instead at odd, perpendicular angles that seemed to defy physics. Trying to walk around the wooden haphazardry towards the wall to the right was impossible, due to both the high pile of dirt and the "Flattened Church Bell" sitting nearby.
"Alright, keep your arms high and ready. Branch in the back. I'm in front", Captain Sylde commanded.
Rounding the floor, other things considered barely more than debris continued to disrupt their path, but it wasn't the most important thing yet. "This doorway isn't guarded by monsters. We'll take a look in there later, but not until we clear the room. Everyone got that?"
No one responded, so Sylde considered it agreed on. In front of him was what looked to have been an intricately carved stone that once had writing on it, but it was all too worn to make out what it might have said. The gelfling exterminator stepped on it, not seeing a way around it due to all the angles of things around.
Getting around the corner, there was a "Support Beam" sitting on the ground like it was just a log, with a partial staircase leaning against it. In the middle of the room were a few doors, but they all looked the same. As Sylde looked, he saw one of them become almost transparent, then no longer present.
As soon as it was gone, the light from his torch illuminated something. Something person-shaped, naked and dehydrated, with scraggly hair and the most mutilated face he had ever seen, holding what looked like a sword. Maybe not the most mutilated face, maybe the same face. He had seen that face before, but it was dead and laying on the ground. Now it was armed and standing up, blade facing him!
------------- Dungeon Storage Room, Dungeon's Perspective -------------
The men had come in, though that was probably his own fault. 'Hey thwomp! Actually both of you! If someone or something tries to go towards the dungeon's entrance, get out of their way and let them! But hey, if they wanna give us stuff that doesn't suck, then you can get out of their way real quick and let them in, too. Only if I accept the payment, obviously!'
The men walked around the various things he hadn't researched yet. It wasn't that he wasn't trying to research everything and get it out of the way, he really was! But there was so much stuff to do that with, and all of it sucked. How was he supposed to do anything interesting with garbage? His thoughts were cut off rather quickly, though.
He ignored the completed research message, already having a few waiting for him.
'Leave my zombie alone!', he screamed, but it seemed like only his own monsters could hear him at this point. One of the men stabbed his spear into the zombie's chest just below its left collar bone, making a crack sound as the speartip hit the inside of the monster's shoulder blade. Two of the other men had daggers, with one of them slashing open the zombie's gut, making its slashed-open stomach pour its contents upon the ground while its organs came following after. The other man's dagger slashed a gouge in the side of the zombie's neck, but less blood sprayed out of its severed jugular vein than the dungeon thought would happen. Then again, it was bleeding from so many large wounds that it probably just didn't have that much anymore. The apparent leader of the men had a sword, which was very quickly stabbed through the zombie's chest, under its right arm at an angle to hack its right lung in half before its heart was pierced. The last man had a spear as well, which was now jammed into the zombie's right upper leg.
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'What the hell! It didn't even attack you! I didn't even attack you! I need that guy!', the dungeon screamed to no avail.
------------- Dungeon Storage Room, Exterminators Perspective -------------
The exterminators crowded around the undead, now dead dead, pulled their weapons from the foul beast, and it collapsed on the ground.
"Good work men! I didn't see it bite or scratch anyone, are there any injuries?", the Captain asked.
Everyone looked at themselves and each other, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. They looked around the room while still in place, looking for more monsters, seeing none.
Caelum leaned down, and picked up the weapon the zombie dropped. "The dungeon is starting to pay out in monster drops. I think for fairness, this one should go to the Ministry."
"I approve. They're going to have some hard work ahead of themselves in a few days. Are they ready over there? I haven't seen anything about their preparations in the replies I've read."
"Sorry, Captain. You know more than we do."
"Thank you, Lawg. Once we're more established here, we can have some better movement and information. Everyone, check the rest of the room. No more looting, we got our drop. Do see if there are any chests around, though. Or other containers. You never know."
------------- Dungeon Storage Room, Dungeon's Perspective -------------
'Now what are you going to do? My Storage Rooms have stasis locks. You couldn't destroy more even if you wanted to! And it does look like you want to, you jerks.' He thought for a moment, trying to decide if he was going to say it or not. 'You don't even know what a jerk I am, and I was just chillaxing. Now though? Naw, you gone fucked up. Just you wait until you see what I do.'
He walked over to the "Doorframe", "Grass", and "Cracked Wooden Bowl", adding them to his research queue. 'Just you wait.' Looking at what used to be his zombie and first monster, he felt sad. 'If this is going to keep happening to you guys, I'm going to make it work for me. Somehow. In the meantime, just... convert to mana.'
All trace of a zombie having been there was gone.
'What's in my list now, System?'
[ Resource: Moldy Pew. Time remaining: COMPLETE
Special Construction: Rat's Nest. COMPLETE
Resource: Smartphone. Time remaining: COMPLETE
Resource: Mosquito. Time remaining: COMPLETE
Resource: Mosquito Eggs. Time remaining: COMPLETE
Special Construction: Exit Door. Time remaining: 3 hours, 1 second
Construction: Door. Time remaining: 1 hour
Construction: Abandoned Campfire. Time remaining: 5 hours
Resource: Termite. Time remaining: 30 minutes
Cannibal Resource: Mana Stone. Time remaining: 100 minutes
Construction: Wooden Floor. Time remaining: 2 hours
Construction: Store Counter. Time remaining: 15 minutes
Construction: Abandoned Campfire. Time remaining: ERROR
Construction: Doorframe. Time remaining: 30 minutes
Resource: Grass. Time remaining: 2 hours
Resource: Cracked Wooden Bowl. Time remaining: 10 minutes ]
'Damn that's a lot of research I still have to- oh wait, some of it is done. Actually wasn't I supposed to research that spell? I know I got that one spell. Where is it?' He didn't see it written on anything in the Storage Room, but he was somewhat distracted by the people walking around in there, looking at things, especially after what they did.
'Alright. Mosquitoes are ready? I'm just doing that, then! Frogs eat those, right? That's where they live, then.'
Trusting that the thwomps would keep the people from getting anywhere they shouldn't, he went into the Frog Room. Now with more breath from the loss of his zombie, he breathed out, just enough for one filmy patch of mosquito eggs to appear on the surface of the mud.
[Spawner activated: Mosquito Eggs]
[Option not available.]
'What option isn't available? Something's going on with every f'in spawner and it's not saying anything!' Looking again, he realized something else obvious. 'The rat's nest is ready? Okay please start spawning a lot as soon as possible!' It was only then he realized he hadn't finished making the room for them.
He stomped through the mud of the Frog Room, and in the Termite Room, he looked to find a spot where the new spawner could go but not be immediately visible. A pile of wooden boards nearby looked good enough. 'If I could just move those boards so I can put the nest under it... hey, zombie!' He growled in frustration. 'Okay now I'm really mad.'
In between some board piles, where he was going to have a slightly straightened path, it was now going to be a big curve. He imagined himself breathing out, expelling mana, turning it into something physical.
[Spawner activated: Rat's Nest]
[Option not available.]
'Okay you know what? I'm digging out that room. I'm digging it out right now!' He rushed to the wall of the Termite Room, threw himself on what he imagined was his chest, and started furiously clawing at the wall with one arm and scraping the floor with the other in order to make sure it was properly dented.