--------- Giant Squisher Daedric Tower ---------

The dungeon watched the zombies dig the dirt out of the room, only bothering to help once he got bored enough. After it was done, the room looked just like he felt like he wanted it. He didn't remember what it was that gave him the idea, but it looked really nice. The floor very slowly sloped up and around the outermost wall, with a doorway heading up and another heading to the landing of the giant spiral staircase. It was really more of a very wide hallway than a room, but rooms can be any shape if you decide so.

He could feel that he had enough breath to make what he wanted, and so he exhaled, imagining a copy of the coal forge he had in his storage, and one appeared along the wall as he wanted. He looked over to the zombies still digging, thinking of telling one it was a blacksmith, but then realized an issue. He still needed the tools, which he wasn't entirely sure what they all were, and fire. Without the forge lit, how could it be used?

He imagined himself exhaling, not to spawn something, but just in exasperation. 'Okay, well then I'll help dig more. System, turn the dirt I excavate into mana! I got stuff to do.'

There wasn't a response, as usual. Though, the dungeon didn't show any signs of waiting for one, and got back to work. After he felt like he had enough mana to make some copies of varying tools from his completed research queue, he spawned them next to the forge. An unused torch, a small pile of dried grass, a smith's hammer that now existed as nothing but a rusty hammer head, some rusty tongs that didn't look like they could close anymore, and the biggest thing, a rusty iron anvil now sat nearby.

'Hopefully someone will give me a lit torch. Or that one guy- oh shit, I was gonna make better monsters! Crap. Okay, okay. I'm paying attention.' The dungeon went back to scratching the surfaces of various existing dirt spots he didn't want as part of a wall, room, or staircase without much attention being paid to it.

Hours had gone by, with the dungeon saying 'Rat attack!' over and over in the head he didn't have. 'Do I have enough mana?' he asked himself. He wasn't sure, but stopped what he was doing anyway. He made his way to the Rat Nest Room, still imagining himself on all fours after sliding through the low entrance that would have been blocked by various wooden furniture, but he had passed through it with no issues so many times, he didn't think about it.

He watched the ratfrog spawner for awhile, but didn't see anything new come out. Not even anything that he hadn't seen before, but nothing at all. 'What, is there a limit to how many times the spawner works?' He didn't get any responses in the form of messages or anything else.

'Okay system! Turn the dead ratfrogs into mana. That'll make this work again, right?'

Again there was no response.

After a few moments however, the pile of dirty-looking mildewy grass that looked soggy despite the fact that its origin looked dry, moved. Out from the nest came what looked like a rat, but it didn't have any fur, and its skin was a muddy green. 'Okay, good. System! Whenever these guys die, turn them back into mana and spawn more of them! Actually, do that for the termites too. You know what? Just do that for every spawner!'

'What was I doing? Oh yeah, better monsters!' The dungeon had stopped repeating his task to himself, losing something in his own process. 'And something about a spawner, right? I know I said spawner for a reason. Research Queue, load up!' He looked through what was relatively new, seeing a combination he thought could be useful.

He imagined what a termite king would look like if it was armored. He corrected himself, making the armor really just fur that had been matted not from neglect, but intent. He took in a small breath, and breathed out. He looked at it, seeing that it was indeed a furry termite, no matter how little sense that made. 'It's not like anyone else will notice what a freak you are. You're never supposed to fight or be seen. I mean, it's not like you're any bigger than any other termite royal, right? Tell you what. You have a special job. Stay away from everyone that comes in here. You just do termite stuff. Like, ruin wood I don't care about, and fertilize eggs. Termite eggs. Well, termite or anything crossed with a termite. You're allowed in any termite nest anywhere in the dungeon. You can't take the nests over though! You can just fertilize some eggs when you want to.'

The dungeon felt a pull of mana from what he considered to be his new lungs, but he ignored it due to a chosen distraction. The termite royal scurried off, but it was very obvious to the dungeon that this increased armor came at the cost of the creature's own movement speed. It wasn't quick anyway, taking enough time to go a few inches that it could have easily been killed on accident by just about anyone.

He wasn't keeping track of how long it took him to watch the new monster escape the Rat Nest Room and disappear into the Termite Room, but after it was finally gone, he went into the room he spent the least amount of time in.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

--------- Farm Outskirts between Plainsheart and Bogsreach ---------

Snyl looked around, spear in hand. "Is it just me, or have there been less monsters and feral animals lately?"

Mael agreed, nodding. "The question is, does it have to do with the new dungeon, or is there a coming wave?"

The other scout wasn't happy.

"I hope not. If it is, hopefully the our guild can handle it, few as we have. I'm going to stay in a cellar or something."

"No, you aren't. You joined the exterminators so you could avoid the draft, so you're backing up the city guard."

"Well, then hopefully there are some adventurers that come for the dungeon that can help."

"Do you really want to deal with an adventurer when they aren't fighting monsters, though?"

Snyl was even less comfortable. "How much of the Ministry do you think would help us?"

"You already know their weapons are decorative."

"Melisande's isn't. She could actually swing that thing if she tried."

Mael laughed. "It's blunt."

Snyl smiled impishly. "So are you, and you do just fine."

The exterminator scouts continued hunting around the area for any monster, or sign of one.

--------- Giant Squisher Secret Research Room ---------

The canine-thing woke up. 'I can move? I feel so much lighter!', it thought to itself. The thing licked the side of its mouth as best it could. 'Where's my fur? My skin still feels bad, but I'm not hot anymore!' The canine-thing wagged its tail and stood up.

The armed zombie nearby looked directly at it, watching intently. It started swinging its flail, preparing to attack. Though, it didn't have the space in the small room to properly get an actual attack ready. It didn't think about that though, it wasn't supposed to. It was supposed to obey commands.

The canine turned around, and crawled under the half-dug wall, only finding the back of the shelf the dungeon placed to hide the room. 'I have to go out!', it whined. It whined again, louder, and started pawing at the shelf, trying to open it.

--------- ? ---------

Giant Squisher clawed his fingernails into the soft dirt sticking out of the space he had purchased with mana, that now felt so long ago. A chunk came off, and disappeared, turning into mana. As it did, he noticed something.

'What is that?', he asked himself. He paid closer attention. 'What's going on?' It happened again. 'Where's it coming from?' Again, it happened. 'It's coming from my Research Room?'

He went in, and didn't see anything out of place. He saw some new things, but he already knew they'd be there. The nude genderless zombie he had spawned in there earlier looked at him, not having anything to do, but before Giant could give a command, he heard something.

He listened, and could now identify what it was. It was something whining and scratching from the hole he made into the room he didn't want anyone to know about. 'Zombie! Move the shelf. I think that dog-monster-thing is trying to get out. Let me see what it wants.'

The zombie did as it was told, and the canine-thing crawled out from the hole, and immediately ran up to the thwomp blocking the other exit, which raised itself out of the way.

'Hey, what are you doing?', he asked it.

The thwomp didn't respond, except by lowering itself back down now that the mangy beast wasn't under it. The thwomp on the other side moved out of the way just as quickly.

--------- Giant Squisher awning trap ---------

Branch laughed lightly, and gave a side-eye to the new Exterminator girl. "The first time, your fear will last until you go to sleep. At least, that's how it was for most of us. So, don't worry about what we think of you. That'll come with time. Anyway, what made you decide to join the Guild, instead of the Ministry or become a laborer?"

The looked shy. "I tried to learn to read, but I couldn't understand it. It was all jumbled to me, the words not looking like I was told they would. So, I tried to help with the goanies, but I wasn't strong enough to carry the forks when they got full."

"You already know there are other things you can do. You can help in a shop, and you and I both know the tavern could use another cleaning girl."

"My father has never thought my cleaning was good enou- what is that?!", she asked, her demeanor and body language totally changing as something with skin bearing patches of red, patches of flakes, and patches of wiry hairs walked up behind her, coming out from the cave mouth. Whatever the thing was, it paused and looked at the two posted guards.

Branch changed gears into business manager-like serious instead of casual colleague. "If it approaches, let it, but back up. I don't know what it is, but this isn't an undead dungeon. There are walking corpses and whatever this is I guess, but it still doesn't count. If it gets closer to you, just back up. If it looks like it's going to attack, we'll get it together." He tightened his grip on his spear and assumed a pose, preparing to lunge.

The diseased thing with a snaggle-tooth and messed up eye walked forward slowly a few more steps, and stopped at one of the two poles holding up the awning. There, she squatted, and did what she came to do. When done, she turned around, and walked back through the crack in the dirt that acted as the only entrance.

The girl spoke up first, bursting with so much air that she seemed to have been holding her breath the entire time. "What was that?! That's normal to you guys?"

Branch laughed. "No, it isn't. I haven't seen that thing before, whatever it was. I've also never even heard of something dead having to relieve itself. I guess it's just sick. Keep it away from you, unless you want to get whatever it has. Oh, that comes to mind. Since you can't read, I'll write your report for you. The Guild has to be told that monsters in this dungeon might now be able to make people sick."

The girl was quiet for a few minutes, but she slowly got more and more uncomfortable. "Didn't you say you went in there before when the dungeon was smaller?"

"Mmm. Just the first room, yes. It was a mess in there at the time, but I didn't see anything like that. No one else did, either." Branch had a pregnant silence for a moment. "Agh! That's where it came from! It got in there when we had to evacuate for the inspectors!"