Red was with Addison and Lotus, a set of cards between the three of them as a game was played. Red wished that he could actually join in on the game, but there was already enough difficulty setting up a box for Lotus’ cards to lean up against. It would be embarrassing for him to try and play while also having his competitors treat him like a little kid. Then again, considering one of his company was actually a child, perhaps he would be in good company.

“Do you have any… of the male monarchs?” Addison asked with a bit of confusion as she looked at her hand of cards, the thin wooden wafers having such strange drawings on them. She was thankful that Ivy had turned the useless shingles into a game, but what a strange set of cards. She had never seen the symbols club or spade before, and the random royalty that didn’t look like any reigning families was awfully strange. She would have to take the fairies word for it that Red liked games using these cards.

“It’s called the King. She says she doesn’t have any.” Red said as he looked at the small fairy’s cards, speaking for her through his text-box interface with Addison. So far Lotus had refused to speak for any reason, and that made playing Go Fish a lot more difficult. He was taking the usual place of Ivy, since it seemed that working with stone made the process of constructing a new room take longer. He wasn’t sure why, but assumed she had sped up the previous expansion by using wood from the local area.

Addison gave a nod of understanding, waiting for the other turn to be played as she drew a card from the deck. Red watched as Lotus tapped on a two of hearts, giving a small nod. “Got any twos?” Red asked as Lotus gave a wave of poison just behind her, a grouping of flies falling to the ground. From what Red could tell, the flies could only enter through the first room, and Lotus was strong enough to keep their numbers down. A crawdad would wander in every once in a while to get its claws on the occasional bug, but they were not the primary defenders.

Addison sighed and handed over the card that she had just pulled from the deck, placing it in the discard pile just as Ivy entered through the front door. “New rooms done. Sorry for the wait.” She said with a yawn as she walked into the bedroom while wiping stone dust off of her overalls. “I got it from here, boss. You go and figure out whatcha gonna do with the new place.” She said as she shot him a grin before climbing onto the bed so that she could watch over the game.

With a quiet thanks, Red stepped away from the bed to mimic a stretch of joints he no longer had. He wished that he still had bones and ligaments to pop, remembering how satisfying it would be when he got out of bed for work with a good stretch. He walked through the hallway with the intention of stepping into his new room. He gasped as he was suddenly there, appearing in the middle of an empty room. It was absolutely bare of anything, even windows as the training wheels had started to ease back on him. He supposed he would have to get used to being able to zip around his dungeon now that it was more than just two rooms.

“Well, this floor is all about taking care of Addison and protecting her. I wouldn’t exactly be a good caregiver if I didn’t give her some way of making food for herself.” He said with a nod, trying to reason this out so he didn’t have to get too complex with anything. He wouldn’t have excuses in the further levels, and would have to make it a proper dungeon. He dreaded the idea of actually making traps and puzzles, since he was certain there were smarter people than him to do so.

As the idea for a trap specialist fairy entered his mind, he remembered that this room was going to be dedicated to the fairies. It made more sense to defend Addison, while also protecting the lives of his fairies. He tabled the idea for a kitchen and opened his menu, clicking on the Fairy Spawner that was going to take up this room. The requirements in the menu had originally said that he needed to have a room empty and acceptable for the fairies. He assumed that meant just an empty room, but it seemed to change as he clicked the spawner button.

Fairy Hive

Requirements: Two unnamed fairies, an unused room.

Room Requirements: Dirt flooring, no ceiling, [Garden] tag is applied, a large tree, and additional plant life.

Secondary Requirements: Once the Spawner begins to construct, a named fairy must be selected for leadership.

Immediately Red had several questions, the most major of which was the fact that this room was supposed to be open air. He had no idea that a dungeon could make a room that wasn’t technically a room. He would have assumed there was no such thing as open air areas of a dungeon’s floor plan. That being said, it wasn’t unheard of that a video game dungeon would have bits that were outside. A good balcony or ledge walk could set the scene for some very interesting encounters in some games.

Opening his menu for the room, he scrolled through the options of what kind of room it could be before he finally managed to settle on garden. He pressed it and gave a small grumble as it began to make several pop ups appear. “I hope these pop-ups get fewer and more far between with age. I can’t imagine being on floor twenty with the system needing to remind me of things like this.” He said with a sigh as he looked at the notifications that appeared.

Alert! [Garden] rooms are influenced by local environment.

List of local plants usable for [Garden]:

Leech Grass

Corpse Daisies

Manchineel (Death Apple)

Devil’s Tooth Fungus

Nightshade (Fruiting)

Hemlock (Fruiting)

Undead Fungus Cluster

Mycanid Spore

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Banshee Bane

Mandrake

Common Water Reed

Blue Lotus

Strangle Fruit Vine

Pearl Pod Bush

[Undead] Oak

[Dead] Oak

[Infested] Oak

Maiden’s Breath

Snap[Dragon] Weed

Snake’s Delight

Devil’s Might

[Rare] Hero’s Defeat

Alert! New Trap Added!

Leech Grass

Strangle Fruit Vine

Warning!

No individuals living, dead, undead, fae, fiend, friendly, foe, angelic, etc may enter through any entrance not approved by the dungeon unless forcefully created from outside. The [Garden] has not been designated a dungeon entrance. Only Dungeon born individuals may enter and exit through this location.

Alert! Floor Theme Applied to [Garden]!

Additional usable plants added:

Feather Reed

Fae Flower

Angel’s Tears

Gossiping Pansies

Seat-Shrooms

Fernal Flowers

Continue with room selection?

Yes No

He ran his hands down his face, stretching the crystalline flesh as he tried to consider what all this meant. He was indeed in an evil swamp, even if the hazy barrier of awareness didn’t allow him to see it beyond the garden’s walls. The problem with that was, he didn’t want the evil to influence his fairies too much. He was a good guy, and he wanted the things in his dungeon to be good.

“Alright… I need to make this place look pleasing to the eyes. The fairies are going to be living here, I just need to make sure that it is nice for them.” He calmly said to himself as he accepted the change to the room. He watched as the stone quickly crumbled back into soil, the walls and ceiling changing to a more appropriate arrangement. The walls were now just pillars, denoting the area of the room between them. The ceiling was open with squares of cross-hatching at the four corners in which potted plants could be hung or vines encouraged to grow.

“First things first, what the fairies need.” He muttered as he looked through the trees, the various tainted oaks not appealing to him when it came to the place his fairies would be staying. There was of course the death apple tree, but he wasn’t sure if it was something that he should just have as their home. There was the curiosity to see what would happen if a poisonous tree was mixed with his poisonous fairy as the leader. Lotus was already a foregone conclusion to who would be running the fairy hive, so perhaps the death apple tree wouldn’t be a bad idea.

He selected the manchineel and was surprised to see a counter, meaning that he could plant multiple at a time if he so chose. Perhaps at some point Red would make an orchard of non-poisonous fruits. Then he would be able to make sure that there was never any want for vitamins in his dungeon. He selected one and found there was also an age counter, allowing him to bring the tree immediately to adulthood with an extra mana cost. He spent the additional mana and watched as a tree meant for sandy soil sprouted from the ground. It’s long trunk splitting into additional bows as it took shape. The tree seemed stunted, smaller than what would have been normal for one of its kind. Though that was due to it having to obey the laws of the dungeon and not take up more than a square of soil room.

A few fruit spawned amongst the leaves of the tree, looking like rather tempting tiny green apples. Red paced around the tree and appreciated the strange nature of it, feeling a phantom itch just from being under the tree. He pulled his eyes away from it as he began to add additional items to the garden so that it would be suitable for the fairies. He made a stone path that looped around the tree, the stones meant to protect travelers from the danger that would be all around them. “Trap information.”

Trap Information: Leech Grass

This grass has been bathed in an overwhelmingly evil aura. The aura is so strong that it mutated the humble green grass into that of purple needles. Each blade of grass is able to puncture skin on contact, with a distinct suction coming from the root system as the plant attempts to absorb life essence. Undead and demonic creatures are innately immune to this affect.

Red sighed as he looked at the grass, knowing it was his only option for the aesthetic of the garden. He waved his hand and everywhere except where he was denoting as the flowerbeds was suddenly covered in the deep violet grass. With that done, he planted things in each of the flowerbeds.

The north-west flowerbed had any plants associated with the fairies in it, Fae flowers, seat-shrooms, and gossiping Pansies. It was a vibrant little patch that arranged itself accordingly. The seatshrooms made small circles where the fairies could sit and talk with one another, while the pansies were in small groups, seemingly whispering to one another and gesturing towards the iridescent fae flowers that held the beauty of the plot.

The north-east flowerbed would be the local fair, everything that his system had listed off for him which wasn’t going into another plot was placed here. He assumed that it would sort itself out, since he had no idea what most of the plants were. He was especially uncertain what most of the mushrooms did.

South east was the demonic plot, where Devil’s might and Fernal Flowers were growing. The devil’s might seemed to be some sort of bush plant, so he arranged it around the edges with the glittering ember glowing flowers as the main feature of the plot.

Finally, with his mana reserves almost spent the south-west was the place where he planted the holy plants. The feather reeds danced tall in the minor-like water feature placed at the edge of the plot. Though that did not distract from the beauty of the Angel’s Tears flowers that now covered the area. Beautiful white flowers that faded into blue drooped in a bell shape. When a particularly strong breeze hit the flowers, Red could almost swear he heard someone crying.

It took most of his mana and a lot more building than any other room, but it was worth it for his minions. They were the only ones that started life with full sentience, so it made sense that they needed a little more. He waved his hands and created two more fairies, waiting the allotted time as he steeled his nerves. Before the fairies could introduce themselves he quickly activated the construction.

The two fairies disappeared from sight as the Manchineel tree began to shake slightly, a new pop-up appearing as the shaking got more violent.

Please select Fairy Leadership:

NAME: ______

He gave a gentle sigh through his nose before he pressed the empty spot and spoke the name aloud. “Lotus.” He said, once again making a decision that he was not prepared for. A good few pop-ups suddenly blocked his vision as he tried to make sense of it all. He was trying to read as fast as he could when the beating of wings came from the previous room and into the garden.