Red was befuddled, trying his best to understand how two evolutions and a secondary title would cause his ordinary crawdad to become a gold plated lobster. So far looking in Snips’ character sheet was giving him nothing, just the information about Snips that Red already knew. That meant there had to be something more to the way that his information skills worked, something about how he was looking at a creature. “Come on Red… you’re a smart guy. You can figure this out. You just need to get the info on this creature.” Red muttered to himself, knowing that talking out loud had helped him in the past. It seemed that it wasn’t working just as he had hoped, since no new pop-up appeared in front of him.
“Alright, maybe it’s that he is a monster now? That third pop-up said I had unlocked a new monster branch or whatever.” Red said with a frown as he focused in on the golden lobster that was swaying back and forth in place, clearly proud of the fact that he had transformed into such a gorgeous creature of war. “Monster information is what I need.” He said to the air, hoping that something would come of it rather than just another situation like how he had been trying to open the inventory on his first day.
Monster Information
Metal Lobster (Gold Variant): The weak and easy to crush Rock Lobster has evolved beyond its previously unrefined nature into a more pristine form. It’s bladed claws now slash with the intent to rend flesh and turn enemies into ribbons. While gold variant lobsters are sought after for their shells, they are the weakest and most common of the rare metal lobsters. Their dense hides reduce their speed compared to their non-magical brethren, and the soft metal of their body can only withstand basic attacks. If a gold lobster can survive long enough to evolve, it will become a far more dangerous foe with each new plating of armor.
“Alright… so it looks like if something becomes unnatural it will be considered a monster. A crawdad is just a kind of crustacean, but a rock lobster is a monster.” Red muttered as he ran his hands over the gold plating of Snips, thinking of how much one lobster would fetch him back on Earth. Red sat down in his projection and continued to pet over his warrior, thinking of something he had been avoiding since his arrival in this dungeon.
Back on Earth he remembered keeping hermit crabs, crabs, and even some tank snails since he just simply enjoyed mollusks and crustaceans. “You know Snips… since there is no one that can talk in the room I think I can vent to you some. I have lived a couple lives before this one, and yet none of them stick with me as much as the oldest life. I was a regular human guy, just living his life and doing things as he was supposed to; At least, I think that's right. I keep having little jumbled memories of what I was like. I don’t… I don’t feel completely like myself.” He said with a sigh as he looked down at the hand not currently caressing a lobster. It was crystalline fractals in the shape of a human hand, no palm lines or fingerprints to show the uniqueness of his form.
“What if I am not really me anymore, Snips? What if I have lived and died so much that I am just a copy of a copy? Does that even matter if I am supposed to be living life as a dungeon instead of a person?” He muttered with a frown as he laid on his side, keeping his hand on the glittering lobster as he considered what it meant to be him. The beady black eyes of said hard-shelled creature motioned towards him and the metallic claws clinked together.
“Yeah… maybe you’re right, Snips. There is a lot of work to be done before I should be getting all existential like this. If that’s the case, what do you think should be the next move? Should I use more spawners or should I go ahead and make the next room?” Red asked with a small smile as he almost cuddled with the lobster. The gilded ocean-bug considered it for a long moment before giving a single clack of its claws.
“You’re right! Spanwers it is. Archimedes gave me plenty of mana from that fight, so I should have more than enough for another spawner or two.” He said with a smile as he brought up the menu once again, not getting up from his position on the floor as he looked through the options he had. He was about to purchase the slime spawner when he realized that Snips would need his lobster spawner if he was going to be a desirable combatant.
When Red picked the lobster spawner, he was surprised to find that the highlighted pools included that of the crawdad pool. “Wait… can I mix spawners?” He asked with a bit of excitement as he realized that there could be territory saved between making multiple spawners. It was honestly a relief, since he wouldn’t feel comfortable having any monsters without a spawner to bring back. The weight of his first crawdads already was wearing down on him, and he couldn’t imagine what it would be like if he lost Ivy or Lotus.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
He had to stop the creation of the spawner however, as he realized it would have tried to use Snips as a material. “Sorry Snips, don’t want to waste you.” He said with a chuckle before opening up his menu. It felt like his eyes were going to pop out of his head as he saw the price of summoning the metal lobsters. They cost a whopping fifty mana, not to mention it would take an hour to summon. The rock lobsters weren’t much better, costing about half for both time and energy. He set two of the rock lobsters to spawn before turning towards a wall, understanding that it was time to get another room.
“Gotta keep getting bigger, right Snips? Never gonna be safe if I am just a one floor dungeon in an evil swamp.” The dungeon intelligence asked his lobster, receiving the sound of two metallic claws smacking together in agreement. A new door frame appeared highlighted on the wall, the sound of stomping little feet running into the bathroom as Ivy appeared.
“Got more work for me, boss?” The green skinned carpenter fairy asked with a grin as she tilted back her hardhat to gaze at her boss. She was smaller than elementary school child, but she was still his biggest creature. Archimedes was a close second, but he was still trying to get his strength back from living in the wild.
“Yeah, we are pushing through with expanding further. After this we are going to work on expanding awareness and getting the entire place a bit more furnished. Uh… how many rooms does the first floor of a dungeon get, anyway?” Red asked with a frown as he tried to learn a little bit more about himself from his own monsters. It seemed like they were more knowledgeable about the requirements of being a dungeon than him. It was rather embarrassing, but at least they never seemed to look down on him for asking such questions.
“Six is the basic, unless you manage to unlock a special room. I’ve heard that special rooms don’t count towards the total.” Ivy said as she began to measure out the size of the door frame as well as the new stone material she would have to carve through. She took out a hammer and chisel, beginning to carve out the door so that she could get to work on the dungeon expansion. “Six counts the boss room, by the way. Have you considered who is gonna be promoted to boss when you get there?” She asked as she continued to work, the loud rhythmic clinking filling the otherwise peaceful room.
“Crap… yeah dungeon floors usually have a boss on them, huh? Well, whoever it is will have to be part of the theme of the floor, right?” He muttered as he thought about how this floor was now modeled over the three branches of fae, demons, and angels. He hadn’t yet unlocked any angelic creatures, however it could easily change should he stumble into that sort of thing. The fairies were sweet, and he didn’t exactly want them to be beaten in battle time and time again just for the sake of protecting his core. The slime was a possible contender, but at the same time it hadn’t gotten the chance to show its abilities in battle just yet.
“I suppose that I will just have to see who ends up being strong enough to be the floor boss. I think that not being even halfway through the floor is a bit early to make decisions like that.” He offered with a small smile as he considered how the carpenter was getting ahead of him on this whole dungeon business. He was thankful for it though, since she was the only one he could actually talk to without using the weird text-box magic.
“Don’t stress about it, boss. You got a great dungeon growing here already, not to mention the constant flow of mana makin life a whole lot easier. We are already ahead of other dungeons by weeks and months thanks to Addy. Usually dungeons don’t get their third room before they’re half a year old.” She offered with that overconfident smile she seemed to always be sporting, her pearly white teeth shining behind forest green lips.
“Well, when you put it like that, I suppose you’re right! I'm already a much better dungeon than I have ever been, so why be so hard on myself about it?” He asked with a smile before clapping his hands over his mouth. He was trying to avoid telling his residents that he had been reincarnated as a dungeon before. It would surely fill them with a lot of anxiety if they knew the source of their life was such a failure. It would dishearten him if he knew his boss had a history of gambling and bankruptcy.
“Of course! You’ve got us, and you will only become a better dungeon the longer you stick with us.” She said as her chisel pierced the stone, cracking apart bricks as the doorframe began to melt. It wasn’t so much that Ivy was actually deconstructing or building anything that she had as a task, but rather her presence was causing the room and hallway to form beyond the door frame. It very much reminded Red of how a game would require an object, but not actually show how the object is used to expand a building or territory.
“Yeah, I got all of you, and you’ve got me.” He muttered with a nod as he looked at the opaque outside that he still couldn’t see through. Just a few more hours of getting mana from Addison, then he could see what he was really working with.