The danger level of creatures on a floor can vary greatly. From practically harmless or even helpful critters to the run for your life roaming bosses. Caution is key in all scenarios. The boss of a floor is often recalled as dangerous, but it’s existence can lull the unwary as they think it the greatest danger. Complacency is the greatest killer of any dungeon.

-Excerpt from “A Beginners Guide to Dungeoneering”

The rest of the night was mostly uneventful, we had some mice come in and saw an owl swoop by for one that had been just outside the barrier. We got a mouse from having the bats slice a mouse with their wings, thus successfully testing their danger level as well as getting a new blueprint.

When morning came we had a beautiful sunrise and a surprise I was unsure to categorize as good or bad. The golden fox creature came back and settled down to nap inside the dungeon. The creature tried gnawing on Terrence for a bit but failed miserably. I noticed that Terrence seemed to have grown a size larger than the original palm size he had been on first entering the dungeon.

Unfortunately all I got from creature analysis was the name of the creature, it was outside my speciality. It was also outside what I knew existed on Earth. I guess we were not alone in the universe after all.

Common Vlapec

I also saw some adorable otters and other woodland creatures, not all of which I recognized, head toward us momentarily before being frightened off by the smell of the vlapec. I wish the creature would move further in so that it’s scent would be more hidden but it seemed content, for now, to stay within 10 meters of the entrance.

Over the course of the day the otters looked over at the entrance several times but seemed wary of entering. The fvlapec, which I found was a male, was denying me both its blueprint and other blueprint at the same time simply by sleeping. Violet seemed bemused by the creature's actions, declaring the creature “as noble as Terrence.”

While beautiful to watch and most kind in helping me win our wager, the vlapec also poses an opportunity. We should put the toads down in the dungeon. We can get a chance to see how our defenses do and at the very worst we will have a stand-in dungeon boss that isn’t under our control.

I concur, we need defenses anyway, and if the rude squatter stays here we wont get any other creatures anyway. Deploy the toads!

Our toad placement was quick, simply placing them in somewhat hidden spots where they would be a hindrance. We even had one floating, pretending to be one of our floating boulders. The toads themselves were decently large, we had made them about a meter cubed to pose a decent threat. I had thought the trap toad was a bigger threat, but the system’s description seemed to indicate otherwise.

We both got slightly anxious waiting and as day turned back into night and our house guest woke up and turned towards the center of the dungeon and started cautiously walking. Violet let out an excited squeak and I may, or may not, have made a similar noise.Our first real test of the dungeon was underway.

Violet startled me out of my thoughts with an offer. Wanna wager for naming rights again? I think we are both pretty sure he’ll be able to get to the end, so wanna wager if he will do that before or after the entrance hall is completed?

I examined the progress of the entrance hall, it seemed roughly halfway done. I had all of tonight, but I might not have any time tomorrow night. It just depended on if the vlapec went all the way in one go or if he would get scared off.

I think he will not make it all the way.

Alright, in that case I will bet that he makes it all the way to the core room. Same rules as before, no interference from us. Now you can’t do jack Jack.

My humor was rubbing off on her as well, I gave a tense grin. I hoped I made the right choice, but Violet’s return smirk and tone seemed to indicate that she was pleased with my choice. I’d wagered based on the fact that this was a wild predator. I vaguely recall learning that predators were more cautious. Predators don’t have a readily available food source as herbivores do so they have to weigh the risks versus the rewards. I didn’t doubt the creature’s curiosity, but it wouldn’t outweigh the caution. It would take more than a single night. Violet was used to sentients and dungeon monsters, not natural predators. Or at least this is what I hoped, maybe even what I thought about wild predators was wrong or only applied to animals from Earth.

Violet and I followed our golden friend as he traveled into the dungeon. Neither of us had thought the toads would prove too much of a problem and it seemed we were correct. The first toad he came upon he stopped short of, he sniffed the air and turned back down the tunnel. My triumph short-lived as he promptly turned into the other branch available to him. This tunnel’s first trap was not a toad but a gravity chute. A gravity chute that did not have a smell to warn him, a gravity chute that we had designed to confuse a person, a gravity chute that he promptly got sucked up into.

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He had gotten past the toad in the first level, but was stuck in that hall as the chute went one way. He yipped in fear and circled away from the chute for a moment before rushing it and trying to climb back down. Our design worked though and he was stuck in the first hallway. He went towards the entrance and smelled the first toad and went towards the core and smelled a second toad, this one a projectile toad. He was stuck between our toad protectors, our toadies. (heh)

He was smart enough to realize his predicament and went to the entrance toad. He was able to smell something to alert him this was the way out, probably his own scent, and stayed by this toad while whining and yipping. I didn’t think scent would be an issue with adventurers, but it was possible. Regardless, this was the first floor. We weren’t trying to make it too difficult.

The golden creature seemed to gain some courage and darted across the ground by the toad. He seemed aware of the toad, as he was staring roughly at him while running, and that saved him from a possible death. The toad’s mouth opened and the vlapec darted to the side, upon seeing the movement. His legs spread his legs out to the sides and some loose skin appeared between them that let him glide out. The tongue missed getting so much as some of the fur. Our golden intruder, for his part, ran straight out of the dungeon.

I turned to Violet. So far it is in my favor, you underestimate my knowledge.

Violet admittedly was confused. I thought it would keep going.

Perhaps if it was more used to all the changes that recently happened. Currently it is just a cautious and frightened predator. Maybe he will come back, you said animals love mana sources. You still have quite a few hours till the wager comes to a close.

The day passed without sight of the vlapec. I was currently glad it was gone but hoped it would return after the wager as it would suck if I got naming rights to a creature we never saw again. The beauty was also nice but I currently was happy that we had other animals coming into the dungeon as there was no longer anything scaring them into avoiding the dungeon.

We had a pair of rabbits with a spiral pattern, hedgehog, a few birds of varying types, and my lovable otters. We even had a more adventurous turtle that the lucky pit-trap toad ate. The rabbits were apparently just rabbits that had absorbed enough mana to have change a bit and be slightly faster. We got both a design for a common rabbit and for a spiral speed rabbit.

That first toad was extra lucky as it got food from both sides. The bats were alright at knocking down the birds but were not quite deadly with their wings. Their natural hunting methods were not quite suiting their new form and purpose. While they would be a decent distraction, and possibly even harm a person if striking an uncovered part, they would primarily distract a person from the toads and traps.

The battering toad was rather bad at hitting the small targets. We had designed it with taller targets in mind and it currently it was only good at hitting creatures if they were on the ceiling, relative to it. Bounding straight up to hit the creature that was on what was previously the ceiling worked decently but not to the level of the trap toad.

The trap toad caught one of every new creature that came in. I admit I moped over the otters, even creating a new otter wasn’t going to cheer me up. I had known we would do it eventually but I still moped through the rest of the day until the entrance hall was completed. Other animals were cute, but the otters I loved. Violet easily agreed to not hurt more than a single creature to get the blueprints of it unless it became a danger to us. It made me a bit happier to hear that.

With the entrance hall complete, the other otters regained their courage enough to come back to the entrance, and another beautiful sunset made the day improve despite having to hurt the one innocent otter. I wouldn’t want to do it again but knowing it a one time thing was at least a small improvement.

We would work on the Boss tonight and finally gain access to the system. I focused on that thought and we got to work. Violet had told me that other dungeons had gone through an additional cycle and cores without the dungeon chosen were already on the third floor. She expected there to be adventurers back soon and so our officially being a dungeon was important. When choosing where to be in this new world everyone chose to be near a dungeon and if we weren’t a dungeon that would be fairly awkward to start off with no people near us to explore our creation.

Maybe I was influenced by my emotions, but we ended up choosing the otter as our dungeon boss. We had varying reasons for choosing the otter above others, but partially it was just that the others weren’t a good fit for being a boss.

A bat, mouse, or turtle wouldn’t be a good attacking boss. The toad would be repetitive as a boss, as it was throughout our dungeon. Repetition is not the best for an adventure dungeon. The hedgehog had potential but wasn’t right for this level. The rabbits we debated using, but our idea for using them seemed too similar to the projectile toad. The otter was the best choice.

We did actually decide to replace the projectile toad with horned rabbits so as to have three different different animals, excluding the boss, for diversity. The new rabbits was smaller than the toad, maybe a quarter of the size, but had a horn that was sharp enough to hurt. While the toad might kill someone in one hit, the rabbit was more visible and it wouldn’t have the crushing mass the toad did. Barring a lucky shot to a vital organ the rabbits were safer. We even had them avoid the head and to aim for center mass, where most people would hopefully have armor to protect them. Maybe shorter horns to start with, just till people saw them?

Horned Rabbit: A rabbit with a spike growing from it’s skull. It has been it is capable of quick turns but is prone to launching itself at predators to intimidate them.

We decided the otter to be a group boss. It made it so each individual was weaker and thus a good start for a beginner, three was the current number though we might adjust depending on how it went. We increased the size of the otters from a meter to two meters long. The claws were lengthened and strengthened with metals. The fur we added iron to as well, the fur now being strong enough to block blows from blunt force and dull blades. The tail was given extra attention with the metal in the fur combining to make the tail bladed, giving their turns a dangerous edge. I avoided telling Violet that pun in particular, saving it for later.

Iron ore otter: This large otter is able to swim through magnetic fields as easily as a normal otter swims through water. Their tails are dangerous as the creature can turn sharply giving added momentum to the blades made of their fur.

Even larger and made dangerous they were still adorable. They bounded off the walls and seemed like they were swimming with the wonky gravity of the room. We had changed the rocks of the room to have their own slight gravity field and magnetic field so that the otters could more easily move and play about the room.

As we waited for the outline of the final otter to be filled in I turned away from them and to Violet with excitement. We were about to officially become a dungeon. As an added bonus I had secretly set up a “woosh” to surprise her.

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