------------- Plainsheart Main Road -------------

The wagon slowed, and the carriage driver raised his arm in greeting to the woman standing off to the side who had been watching them approach for awhile. "Mountainthrone dungeon investigation team is in the back. Where's your inn?", the driver asked.

"We don't have one", she said. "Tavern has some rooms available, sometimes. Down the road, stop at the circle. The Ministry of Truth and Exterminators Guild is there too."

The driver gave a small nod, and the wagon picked up a small amount of speed and went to where he was told to.

In the back, the passengers were jerked awake from the sudden lurch. The woman with the book sat up slightly, and glanced at her companions. "We're here."

The lesser noble shifted on his seat, and looked to the front of the wagon, trying to see over the boxed supplies and into the city through the opening of the cover, but he couldn't really make much out. He sighed. "I know what to do. I'm ready."

------------- Dungeon Storage Room -------------

In the back of his mind, he remembered yawning when he woke up, followed by stretching his arms, often hitting his knuckles into the wall behind his headboard. This time, he did wake up and rolled over, finding himself seeing the Storage Room from the perspective of the floor. Everything was nearly black-and-white, with the few colors that were present appearing very dulled out. Standing next to him, was a small naked man that lacked definition in the place that made Victorians faint.

He immediately jerked fully awake and sat up, but before his back was at a ninety degree angle, he stayed curved forward as his instincts told him that he'd hit his head if he moved upwards that quickly. 'I'm awake! What are-' he started to exclaim, vaguely remembering falling asleep when he was supposed to be doing something, and someone standing next to him looking displeased. Whatever the memory really was, too many parts of it were missing for it to make sense.

He stared at his zombie for a few moments. 'Oh, you're a zombie! My zombie. My second one. Assholes, that other guy was useful. I guess you're going to be useful instead, right?' The zombie didn't respond. In fact it hadn't moved since the dungeon's perception flickered out.

'What was I doing again? Oh yeah, I was putting down a rat spawner.' He got up, and made his way through the maze that was himself until he got to the small tunnel he had meant to turn into a Rat Nest Room. 'Crap, right.' After awhile, he had a crawlspace that led to a small ramp and a flat platform large enough for two rat nests.

Remembering what the rat nest made of what looked like dirty hay, he looked at the dirt platform and breathed out.

[Spawner activated: Rat's Nest]

[Option Available]

[Select Lineage]

'An option finally! That's what it was talking about? I mean, it's a rat nest. So, rats obviously.'

There was no response, and he could feel that the spawner was still waiting on a response.

'Okay, then what lineages can I pick from, then?'

[Lineages Available]

[Frog]

[Termite]

[Mosquito]

[Rat] [Default spawner lineage. Choose spawner's second lineage.]

'Oh fuck! I can make half-rats? Okay then, frog!'

There was no response, but the dungeon didn't feel like the spawner was waiting on him anymore, at least. Excited, he watched until something came out. When it did, it looked like a normal frog. A frog that didn't have mucous-covered bumpy greenish-brown skin, but light brown fur and a rat tail. Totally normal.

He mostly just stared slack-jawed, or as slack-jawed as someone could stare if they didn't have eyes or a jaw but only pretended to, at the new monster, whatever it was. 'Okay, if I can do this now, I need WAY more animals. Like, a lot more. Boredom, I slay you! Best. Antfarm. Ever. Oohh! I need ants! Can I get those? I didn't see any out there... not that I looked that hard. Meh, I was busy with that chode. Hey, system! What's my research list look like now?'

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

[ Special Construction: Exit Door. COMPLETE

Construction: Door. COMPLETE

Construction: Abandoned Campfire. COMPLETE

Resource: Termite. COMPLETE

Cannibal Resource: Mana Stone. COMPLETE

Construction: Wooden Floor. COMPLETE

Construction: Store Counter. COMPLETE

Construction: Doorframe. COMPLETE

Resource: Grass. COMPLETE

Resource: Cracked Wooden Bowl. COMPLETE

Special Construction: Mouse Hole Wall. COMPLETE

Special Construction: Stalactite. COMPLETE

Resource: Unknown Bone Fragment. COMPLETE

Resource: Wooden Podium. COMPLETE

Resource: Ruined Book. COMPLETE

Resource: Blue Denim Pants. COMPLETE

Special Resource: Rechargeable Battery. COMPLETE ]

'Wait, what? Everything? Okay!' He crawled backwards out of the Rat Nest Room, no-clipping through the wooden debris he had put around the Termite Room, and made his way back into the Storage Room. The room had more functions than that, but he was just focused on the things he didn't research yet. Seeing the Gelfling Zombie standing there holding his copied cell phone in parts, he sighed.

He poked each thing the animated dead held. 'Research, research.' The cell phone's black plastic backing disappeared, but the cell phone didn't. 'What? I can't?'

The system didn't respond.

'Fine. Okay, then lemme...' he breathed out, thinking of the phone's rechargeable battery, making one appear in midair, which fell to the ground. As soon as it did, the system, or whatever it was, responded.

[Special Resource: Rechargeable Battery requires input energy to output electricity. Select default energy type for Special Resource from available options.]

[Non-Elemental Mana]

[Radiation]

[Divine]

'What, you can pray for your cell phone to charge itself and it will? You have no freakin' idea how useful that is, system. I could have used that SO MANY TIMES. But why do I need that now? Just the mana option, I guess. Actually, since you're being so talkative, let's get you to explain this one.'

He breathed out, only a small amount, but it felt like the small rock pulled the air out of him by force. Whatever this thing was, it wouldn't allow itself to created in a minimal way.

As it clattered to the floor, the system responded.

[Cannibal Resource: Mana Stone can be attributed. Select attribute?]

'Okay, look. That's the kind of shit that pisses me off about you. How am I a cannibal? That's super wrong, system.'

He could still feel that he was supposed to give an answer. 'No, I'm not attributing that one. In fact, I'm just gonna Convert to Mana because you didn't answer me.' The rock, about the size of a knife's handle but fatter and lumpy, disappeared, and he could feel his lungs refill slightly, though not as much as they had emptied in making it.

'Stupid system. Anyway, what was I doing?' He looked around the Storage Room, seeing all sorts of small things he didn't research yet, and a few big ones. 'I'm just getting this crap out of here, I guess. Oh yeah, bugs! My ant farm needs to be awesomer!'

He found all of the varied articles of clothing scattered around, but tagged the animals with actual excitement. 'Okay system, tell me what my queue looks like now!'

[ Resource: Cell Phone Battery Cover

Resource: Black Leather Belt

Resource: Blue Cotton Boxers

Resource: Tick

Resource: Tiny Mite

Resource: Isopod

Resource: Daddy Longlegs

Resource: Gelfling Shirt (stained)

Resource: Gray Tee Shirt with writing “If you met my family you’d understand”

Resource: Cotton Sock

Resource: Gelfling Pants (ripped) (waste)

Resource: Spider Egg Sac ]

After finding and queueing the research for the egg sac, he imagined smiling. 'Okay ants, time to get played with', he said out loud. But before moving towards the rats, he remembered something. 'Oh yeah. The Frog Room needed something better. Where was-'

Even mentally, he didn't finish the sentence. Instead, he tagged a few more items.

[ Resource: Broken Stool

Resource: Depleted Torch

Resource: Wooden Torch

Resource: Old Wooden Table

Construction: Rusted Torch Sconce ]

'You know what? This is just tedious, and I'm not in a rush. System, whenever I put something in my research list, make it disappear and shove it in my wind. Stuff it in the Research Room once it's done. Got that?'

There was no response. Looking around the room to make sure it worked, the dungeon didn't see any clothes around anymore, nor the sconce that was on the ground in front of him a moment earlier.

'Cool! Okay good. This'll be more fun now.' He didn't care what he added to his research queue, instead simply tagging everything in the room until only one mouldy bench, one sock, a few tiny mites, and a gray rectangle remained. He looked at his sock. 'Eh, I'll deal with it later. Actually, hey zombie! Wanna do something fun? Put the- oh dang it! Your pho- I mean my phone. Where's that battery?'

He saw it immediately. 'Zombie, put the battery in the phone.'

It did so.

'Okay now turn it on.'

It touched the power button, and the phone turned on. The blue light from the phone's desktop illuminated the monster's face, which didn't please anyone with an opinion on the subject.

'Yuck. Okay, so... what was I doing? Oh yeah, music. Good. Bring up some tunes!'

The zombie didn't do anything.

'Come on man, you have-' The dungeon thought for a moment. When his phone was on earlier, he was able to interact with it somehow. Maybe he could again? He pulled up the phone's app list, but it was empty.