In many instances the trials were harder than the first levels of dungeons or locations we found ourselves in. The hard part was that the trials were temporary, had rest periods inbetween tasks, and were fairly uniform. Dungeons and nature had much more varied tribulations and carried on forever, sleep became an issue of security.

-Excerpt from "Tales From the Survivors of the Shift" by Kamilla

The construction of the first floor was almost complete. I waited while standing within the portal bubble, almost certainly not the technical name for it but who would tell me differently, looking out to see if there were any nearby creatures that might be intrigued by the mana. The mana the dungeon emanated apparently could be a large lure for many creatures.Dungeon creatures could survive purely off of the mana, forgoing water and food, albeit at a cost to mana production, excretion?

For creatures outside the dungeon it still felt like invigorating and somewhat empowering. It felt like getting bigger breaths, like waking up and being well rested, being able to see and feel more clearly. It did in fact make the animals stronger and more powerful overall. Some even got strange abilities while others grew in strength or speed. They could become creatures that could rival any mythological dragon, if they lived long enough and absorbed enough mana. In the far off future some may even equal the creatures of lore who could destroy worlds, though that would be in the distant future and incredibly unlikely.

Honestly, from what Violet described, I felt like a drug dealer to small woodland creatures. Worse, if I wanted to have my own small animals they would have to die. I was the creepy guy in the white van that every mom warned their kids about. This made me almost miss the veil the douche voice had put over my emotions to keep me calm. I definitely prefer having control over my facilities and emotions, but if I could have control enough to turn off those emotions when “acquiring” an otter I would be appreciative.

I went back inside the dungeon for the last minutes as the first floor of the dungeon was complete. It just felt like some important occasion and that I should be there. We’d get creatures eventually, but this was a momentous occasion. It was basically a hole filling itself up, but a momentous hole.

The hole finished and I expected some surge of energy, some clue as to the significance but nothing.

Violet looked at my crest-fallen face and chuckled. We can now get creatures and have already started on filling in the entrance hall, why so glum?

Honestly? I just felt there would be some acknowledgement, in movies there is always some mystical wave that appears and goes “woosh” when something happens. We just got our first floor and all, I guess I was expecting something in the back of my mind.

You have the power to create matter out of almost nothing and you want there to be a “woosh” when something happens? I am sometimes not sure about you Jack. If it really bothers you than you can make it so upon defeating our first floor boss there will be a “woosh” how does that sound?

She just had to mock me, well maybe I would put a “woosh” at some big moment, maybe even add some background lighting. Time to change my focus from my embarrassment, go-go-gadget distraction.

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Wanna see what animals approach us now that we are open for business? I’m hoping for an otter to enter. What about you Violet, any preferences or hopes?

Violet’s response was practical, I think I would be quite happy with any predator we can get. Despite our first floor needing to be friendly there should be a limit to how easy it is. We need a strong creature as the boss to be a good balance between easy and hard. A mouse and it would need to be enormously buffed to be close to strong enough for a boss. Perhaps even making it to the size of a person would only make it a challenge as a normal creature. On the other hand, an elemental as a boss might be much too hard for new adventurers with no knowledge of how to fight them.

A logical response, but also a response that didn’t work with what I hoped we could do with an elemental. I was really hoping the boss issue was solved. I liked the idea of a golem made up of magnetic rocks. It would look amazing and have the defense and offense to back up the looks. It could throw the rocks to surprise people as they loop around the gravity field, it could have metal weapons stuck to it, there could even be some cool way of having it appear as all the parts of it pull together. I had it all planned out!

Her response confirmed that an elemental boss was all but a bust.

You are simply proving the point that it seems too advanced for the first level. Even an average elemental would be difficult to defeat, most dungeons that use them have extremely minor versions. More so, if your ideas are implemented the original weakness of an earth elemental, it’s speed would matter less if it had a ranged attack and the gravity might draw people in towards it. If you are set on an elemental boss we could make it work, but it would probably be much weaker than you are hoping.

Perhaps we can save that idea for a different, more advanced, level? It does sound suitably impressive and if saved we can utilize all your hopes at once. This is only the start of the dungeon after all. We want them to come back for more, bringing other people and expelling mana, not die after the first attempt and scare people off.

I smiled, she was trying her best to cheer me up. She had also mentioned people enjoying the place before mentioning the original purpose of putting mana into the world.

Thanks Violet. Hey, I think that turtle might be coming towards the dungeon.

She turned to look where I was pointing. There was indeed a small turtle, maybe the size of my palm, that was crawling roughly in the direction of the dungeon. She cheered and I joined her, this might be our first creature. I checked the sky and further out in the forest and saw nothing. It seemed nothing would get here before the turtle, slow and steady winning the race. The fact that I was watching a turtle meander with all the excitement of the world cup was not lost on me.

We watched the tiny turtle crawl towards us, crawling over grass and rocks to get to us. It was no otter but was still rather cute. The little bald head and bright eyes sticking out towards us.

The turtle entered the dungeon with thunderous applause that it would never hear and after another length it sat still. Our applause paused and we stared at it. The turtle did nothing, seemingly perfectly content to just bask in the mana inside our dungeon. Talk about anti-climactic, compared to finishing the first floor this was an even bigger let down. Well, maybe not a total loss, the turtle proved that creatures would indeed want to come. Violet and I surrounded the adorable little turtle staring at it as ghosts and missed the arrival of the second outside occupant to our dungeon.

A bat had entered our dungeon with an unusual entrance. While waiting I had seen several bats outside the dungeon, some I thought to roost under the land bridge. This one had, probably, been woken up as the mana went downwards and decided to explore the new source of energy. Upon flying into a cave the poor bat had tried to go towards the top to land and simply ended up flying face first into the ground, breaking its neck.

Violet and I turned away from the turtle upon hearing the small crack and saw the bat on the ceiling. My next movement was to turn to Violet, I saw the same befuddled and amused expression I assumed was on my face. The system was much more blase in it’s response.

You can now spawn "Common Bat"

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