--------- Bogsreach Exterminator Outpost ---------

"Do we even need to keep up the guard over there?", the girl asked the other members of the Exterminators Guild posted in Bogsreach along with her, or at least the ones present and awake.

The captain looked discomforted by the question. "We do, though we should have made a perimeter around the inspectors, in case they failed or something else got in." He sighed. "But I don't want to anger the adventurers, and you know why."

She did know why. Adventurers were far too high up the political and legal ladders, and making them realize you don't take them seriously is really stupid. Who would actually want to prove to someone more powerful than you are that you expect them to fail? Who would actually want to give people who have the right to kill you for any reason, an excuse? She ignored her own thoughts for a moment and went back to what she was talking about, seeing that Sylde was still speaking.

"I'm sorry, what? Could you repeat that?", she asked.

Lawg started laughing. "The captain", he said with emphasis, "was saying that we need to make sure nothing else gets into the dungeon. Do you want to deal with a dungeon full of twisted warks?"

--------- Giant Squisher outer cave mouth ---------

Giant Squisher stood outside the cave entrance, looking at the result of his monster's crafting skill. 'You know', Giant started thinking to himself, 'bags of flaming dog shit is rather cliché, but not if you're the doormat. Yeah, I can use this.'

He reached down, and his imaginary and translucent image of his hand intersected with what he identified as a new resource.

[Resource discovered: Dog Feces]

[Dog Feces added to Research Queue]

As the pile cacafully disappeared, one of the nearby gelflings took notice and said something to the other one. A new gelfling, Giant thought when he saw her face for the first time. 'As soon as I can, I think I'll make sure that you guys can go back outside from my labyrinth. Think of it like a...'

One of the researches finished, but notifications weren't active and so no notice was given.

The imaginary human stood where he was. 'What was I saying? Oh, yeah. Exits. I was going to go put a couple exit doors around.'

With that, he went back inside, and wandered around, looking for somewhere he should put a quick escape, but didn't see anything he wanted the invaders to be able to get out of that they would be easily able to access. Instead, he chose a random wall in the Research Room, just to fulfill his own task.

He saw the Exit Door where he planned for it to be, built into the dirt wall, and breathed out.

[Error. Exit Door has no linked door to act as an Exit.]

'Linked? Oh whatever, that's obvious enough. It just needs another door, right? That's easy', he thought out loud to himself without being out loud at all. He stood in the cave mouth, looking at the dirt all over the place, the room never really had effort put into it. It wasn't even a proper Room.

Since there wasn't an available flat wall, except one that was too close to the cave mouth guard thwomp, he took a deep breath. Not feeling himself having issues still, he imagined a door somewhat in the corner of the dirt, so it was at least not easily visible from where the sunlight would normally stream in, and exhaled.

[Exit Door not linked to any other Exit Door.]

[Select option:

Entrance

Exit]

'Duh, this one's the... wait, hold on. Yeah, this one's the e... uh, Entr... no. Exit. Yeah this is the out hole.'

[Select Exit Door for linked Entrance.]

He stood in front of the other Exit Door, located in the Research Room, and linked it as an Entrance Exit Door.

There was no notification.

As soon as he did so, he could feel someone staring at the back of his head again. 'Again? I thought those guys were just standing around like always. What are they coming in for?', he asked himself. He made his way into the Storage Room, but didn't go further.

--------- Cave Mouth Thwomp's Perspective ---------

It saw its creator standing around in the room that was usually mostly empty, but it couldn't see where the zombie went after it faded into existence. It couldn't turn, after all. It had a face that faced each of the two rooms it separated, but that wasn't really enough to track stuff.

Then again, that wasn't its job. It was supposed to just get out of the way if a donation was given or a monster or its creator got close enough to need it to move. That's it.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

In the room that was not square, it saw some of the small people. One of them had a stick of some kind with a strange shape to it, held in both of its hands, and it walked behind the other two. The group stopped in front of its face, and it glared at them and gave a threatening grimace.

The small people looked at each other, but didn't say anything. The one with the stick put it down in front of the thwomp's face. It looked at it better, and didn't know what to do with it or make of it or anything else. It was a stick. It seemed like the donation type of thing it was told about, so it willed itself to defy air buoyancy and went upwards, and it held itself there. It could see, barely, into the mostly empty room, so once the small people came in, it would go back down again.

--------- Giant Squisher's Perspective ---------

Giant Squisher saw the twisted-looking branch sitting on the ground on the other side of the doorway now that the thwomp moved. 'Aw shit. That's what I forgot to do! A monster should go grab the donations so they can't be used more than once, and they can't just take it back once the door opens.'

Luckily, the delvers didn't seem to care about trying to pick the dried-out and cracked-looking branch that had clearly been weathered for a few years. Still, it was something he hadn't gotten before, since all the plants outside were just tufts of grass of different health levels. Plus that one flower it got off that one delver, but that was odd. Maybe dandelions just weren't weeds on this world? Maybe it wasn't really a dandelion.

He tried nabbing the branch without going over to it, seeing if he could do such a thing, at least while he was in the dungeon. In himself.

[Resource discovered: Weathered Branch]

[Weathered Branch added to Research Queue]

'Ha! Nice.' Before Giant could cheer himself on too much though, the frogs in the next room started acting up.

--------- Delver Party Perspective ---------

"The branch just disappeared. Did you see that? Just as I walked around it, it started to... I could see through it, then it wasn't there", the young man that had carried the piece of wood asked the two following behind him.

"We saw. It's a dungeon. Who knows what it can do?" The slightly older boy tried to look cool by not reacting.

"Oh shut up, you two", said the stronger-willed girl. "I'm just surprised it took it. That's seriously the bribe this hole wants?"

The three of them continued on, only giving a slight glance into the Storage Room, not seeing anything due to their lack of a torch.

"There's another doorway here, but there's no monster stopping us."

"Well, keep going, then!"

"It's dark. I can't see. How can you?"

The girl didn't answer. Instead, the older boy did. "We need a torch. This was a waste of time! Come on, let's go."

"No! We're going. You saw that the dungeon is bigger than this. So, we're going in. We can find our way along the walls."

The scout of the party continued complaining to the leader, and the support kept up with the group instead of retreating due to being outnumbered. The scout found where the dirt became very liquidy mud. As they had entered the Frog Room, the frogs started to chime in with their own croaks and ribbits, increasing in speed and decreasing in rhythm until the trio's arguments and complaints were drowned out completely. Instead, they just had to pull on each other's hands to guide each other to the opposite ledge.

Once out of the room, the frogs all stopped making noise.

"What was that!?", the leader yell-asked.

The boys were quiet for a moment until the younger one answered. "Uh, I guess they don't like talking."

The party listened for more interrupting frogs, but didn't hear anything.

"See, look", the girl said, "we made it through, and we didn't need a torch."

"... I still want one, though", the older boy retorted.

"And I want a stick to hit SOMETHING with. Too bad for both of us. Let's go."

It was no time at all after she said that that she yelled in pain. "Ow, my knee!"

"What happened?", asked the younger boy.

"I just smacked it into something hard. Ah, ow."

The party spread out slightly, finding the edges of tables and the corners of church pews, amongst a couple other things. "What is wrong with this room? Is it just a bunch of furniture thrown around?"

"If I had a torch-"

"Shut up about that! There isn't anything over here. Just come this way."

"Which way? It's pitch black. I can't see anything."

"No one can. Grab my hand." She flailed her hand around, not touching anyone. After a couple minutes or so of everyone bumping into each other and everything else, they formed a chain. Half an hour later, they had cleared the bend in the middle of the room.

"What's that light?", the leader asked no one in particular. After not getting an answer, she asked again. "Well?"

The older boy was the first to answer. "I don't know. I haven't seen light that color before. It looks like it's coming from somewhere else."

"Yeah", the younger boy said, sounding winded. "I don't know too."

The girl rolled her eyes at this misspeak, but no one could see it. "You're supposed to be in front, since you paid the dungeon. Get in front of me, we'll follow you."

"Yeah, but you made me pay it", the boy replied. "I didn't even have anything! Why did it have to be me?"

"I said so, that's why. Smart thinking, getting that branch. How long had it been sitting outside your house?"

"I don't know", he answered honestly.

"Longer than I can remember", his older brother added.

"Well, it was useful. Go check out that light."

Most of the rest of the walk to the opposite doorway was relatively easy, having a small amount of secondhand light illuminating at least part of the piles of furniture and the path between it. The shadows only moved occasionally, but more importantly, something red glinted in the shadows near the door once or twice. It was very much noticed by everyone, but no one said anything.

The scout peeked around the illuminated doorway, and jumped backwards out of the way of the open doorframe. He rushed to the others, and started heaving. "There are dead people in there."

The older teens were quiet.

"I didn't hear about anyone dying in here."

No one argued with the neighbor girl.

"No, they're uh, standing up. They moved."

"Zombies. I've heard the stories, don't lie and say you didn't. That's... uh... Okay boys, you said you wanted to leave, right? Okay, fine. We're leaving."

Though they now had some familiarity with the room's layout, their fear and attempt at haste counteracted a majority of it. After they were reminded of the mud pit, some frogs showed their talent in censorship before the delvers made their way back into the Storage Room, and started feeling along the walls for the other door, still rather frightened.

That's when they heard a large and stony beast growl at them.

"I don't remember the way out being this far! I swear it was right there!", the scout shouted.

"I feel a door over here. Follow my voice, come over here!"

"I got a splinter! This wall's made of wood!"

"Yeah, so is this door. Come over here and we can leave!"

"It doesn't even sound like you're in the same room as me!"

"Follow the sound of my voice!", the party support demanded.

They got to him fast enough once they got ahold of themselves. The older boy opened the door, and the party saw some slight ambient sunlight. "Go, go!", the older boy said as he shoved his party members through the doorway one after another.

They weren't sure where they were standing exactly, but looking around and seeing the light better, they all unanimously chose to go to it as quickly as they could scramble.

The Exterminators standing guard outside, resting comfortably in the shade of the awning, laughed.

Sif kept her joviality and asked, "You guys have fun?"