17)

According to the manual, there are two reasons for the existence of dungeons.

A magical world will have magical threats. Dungeons give the people who will deal with those threats a way of getting high enough in levels to be able to do so. A magical lion with iron-hard skin wanders into the local farms, you got a few silver ranks already living in the area to deal with them. Rabid dragon, a team of gold ranks will be on their way soon.

The other reason is that there are other magical worlds out there with things that can cross over. Inter planer hordes, demon lords, rouge dungeons, and all sorts of other threats.

So the reason I’m here is to make a dungeon that will help a lot of people get ready to fight things. Mainly the magical beasts that have begun to be born as the local background level of magic in this world has developed.

In other words, a dungeon for newbies.

Low-level threats, gradually increasing in difficulty. Basic equipment for treasure. Rooms that are just dangerous enough to teach people to be on guard rather than lethal.

So my first room is as big as I can make it and have it all within my current reach. One large open area twenty feet across with the stairs coming down to an opening on one side and another set through a door and going down the far end.

I use compressed material to create fake trees half embedded in the wall out of the same slightly orange-tinted red compressed material that makes up the ceiling, floor, and walls.

Branches from these trees arch out over the open area and along the sides of the room. Then I hallow out the tree and leave an open gutter on the tops of all the branches. The trees and gutters get filled with dirt while the ground gets covered with a few inches of the same.

The ground is filled up with low-lying plants while the tree branches get planted with some leafy stuff. I cast a few light spells to set up a ring of magical sunlight around the edge of the room.

As for the monsters. Squirrels.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Since I didn’t pick beasts I can’t power them up with my element of lighting. And they certainly aren't the most dangerous of beasts. But this is the first room in a newbie dungeon. The squirrels are small and quick. While their attacks are doubtful to injure anyone, let alone kill them, they will still hurt.

If anyone can't handle fighting a bunch of angry rodents. Then they can't handle a real fight and should find that out in the first room.

I register the room as Level one, Room one. The monsters are set as one squirrel plus two more per person in the room. As set monsters, I don't have to pay magic to keep resummoning them after they end up being killed. But replacing them does slow down my magic regeneration. Which is the main limiting factor in how many people can run the dungeon.

[ You have built your first encounter room. Reward 10 BP ]

The room can’t replenish itself while people are still in the dungeon so theres no point in other people coming in. No monsters to kill means no treasure will appear.

Just to make sure I set up a sign with "Please wait while the dungeon is restocking." on one side and "The dungeon is ready for exploration." on the other. The sign is mounted on a side-mounted hinge with a lever in a hollow space above it so one of my mice can flip it back and forth as needed.

It also can't replenish itself unless it's within my reach. So a set of brackets on the ceiling hold an open-topped core room which I transfer myself to as my new home until I level up enough to put a new room down below and can have both rooms within my reach.

As for treasure. I can’t set it for anything in particular. All I can do is slide a bar from “Coins” to “Loot”. For the moment I set it all the way to loot. I figure newbies would need basic gear and healing potions at the start.

I can make treasures on my own and give them out myself. So I add some basic items around the room in alcoves made out of compressed material with a grid pattern on the handles to give a good grip. Since they aren't part of the dungeon like the ceiling, walls, and fake trees the stuff is a bit fragile and prone to snapping.

So the weapons I provide are variations of clubs and maces. Some with an almost axe-like edge that will quickly chip, others with spikes that will snap off pretty quickly. The thing is that even with the chips and broken spikes they will still make decent clubs. At least until the entire thing snaps in half or shatters.

The way I picture the first room going is, adventurers enter, then squirrels leap down scratching and biting. Then they run off to quickly climb back up the tree for another leap-down attack.

Smart adventurers put their backs to the wall so they can’t get leaped on from behind and perhaps snatch up one of the dozen various weapons sitting in alcoves around the room and slam the squirrels that are leaping on them out of the air.

So the room should teach them about tactical positioning.

Hopefully.

More than likely it will teach them how to run around screaming, blaming each other, and dealing with light scratches and bites.

Yeah, I've been there. Me and my cousins, the mighty hunters, tried to kill a nest of Shale moles at the age of fourteen. Wrong weapons, no plan of attack, and no backup plan. The wounds were far from lethal, but I still had the scars until the day I died.

Wait… I pull my perception back to within the core where I could see myself in the form of my youthful self. I pulled the soft knit pants up my left leg and looked at the short thick scar on the side. After a moment's focus, smooth skin replaced the old wound. I don't know if that will stay that way, but it was worth a try.

For the moment, I’m out of magic and need to rest for a few hours.

The next morning Iris comes home. She first follows Buttercup’s shrieking cries upstairs to let him out. Then she enters the kitchen and stares at the fridge before hesitantly walking over and opening it up.

“We should talk.”