“Map out your future – but do it in pencil”

-Jon Bon Jovi

==POV: Zidaun==

We started our morning early today. Breakfast was not exactly hurried, but we didn’t take the time to talk and linger either. We were not terribly worried about the other party waking up and going anywhere. We had already told them we were going to show up, plus they had almost certainly gone to sleep later than we had. There was a possibility that the other party had slept in the tunnels, but if that was the case we could still expect them to take some time to arrive, or stop and wait after they read the note.

Still, it would be rude to keep them waiting. So we proceeded with moderate hurry.

The trip through the dim cavern was as uneventful as ever. We followed the curvature of the road toward the middle and then changed direction to proceed on the mirroring pathway. Soon enough we were close to the other building. I felt a magic pulsing out of it before I could see the people inside.

A man, lanky and with a smile, came out to greet us. I could feel the others rapidly dressing inside.

Something else struck me as well. Inside, in their packs, were traces of old journeys. I was fairly certain there a living spider that had crawled out into one of the corners of a room. From faint mana signatures, there might be other insects in their gear.

I started to open my mouth, but immediately stopped. Telling them of their failure to completely sterilize their gear properly would only hurt the dungeon. It would get access to some forms of life earlier than expected.

I said nothing, merely noting that this team was likely new to their job.

“Hello, I am Soara, we will be happy to talk with you in a few moments. Don’t worry about introducing yourselves just yet. I am sure the others will want to know who you are.”

He broke away from his formal speech as he grinned and gestured to the cavern.

“This is all rather exciting, isn’t it.”

I smiled back at him, “It is.”

I heard Gurek mumble behind me.

“Wonder how excited he will be after having to endure that damnable heat… twice.”

Inda elbowed him, getting a mutinous glare and muttered conciliation in return.

It only took a few minutes before the rest of Soara’s party joined us.

All three of the humans bore the swarthy skin common to Tsary and the desert regions to the south. The other Adar was from the desert as well, his brown yellow markings and sweptback thorny green hair unmistakable.

Soara smiled, his face wrinkling, as the last of his group came outside. Their hair, the Adar aside, showed a faint messiness indicative of their hurried rise.

“At last,” Soara said, “my excellent companions grace us all with their presence. Allow me to do the honor of presenting them, and elucidating my own humble presence.”

He winked at us and bowed exaggeratedly.

“I am, as I said before, Soara, the sensor of the group, with some ability in enemy control.”

He gestured to his side toward the woman standing there. She was of average height, but in thick leather armor that still failed to hide the density of the muscles on her frame. A short hammer hung at her belt and a shield was slung on her back.

“Next, as is only proper, the lovely lady of our group.”

“Ha,” she interrupted, “I’m no lady. Don’t go giving them the wrong idea.”

“Ah, of course, my mistake.” Soara said with his omnipresent grin.

“However, I note that even you can’t dispute your loveliness, Norana.”

She rolled her eyes at him, not bothering to respond to him, but she smiled at us.

“It is lovely to meet you all.”

“Norana is our bulwark. And, may I say,” His eyebrows waggled, “I have never had the chance to be behind so lovely a guard.”

He danced out of the way as Norana tried to stomp on his foot.

“Next, before his services are needed, let me introduce our ever cheerful healer, Anaath.”

Anaath simply glowered at him, his face a dour mask. He didn’t bother to say anything, only giving a terse nod towards our group. He was clad in loose tan robes, though hints of leather armor poked out beneath it.

“And, lastly, our indomitable leader and ranged specialist, Tarrae.”

Tarrae was dressed in robes as well, though his were a pale off white with green designs stitched at the bottoms and along the hems. The designs were vaguely reminiscent of plant-life. He was slightly taller than average. His muscles were lean and he wore only the lightest armor.

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He stepped forward slightly.

“Thank you, Soara, for that… colorful introduction. If you would be so kind as to introduce yourselves?”

I stepped forward.

“Of course, it would be my pleasure. I don’t think I could give quite such an unusual introduction.”

“You better damn well not,” Inda grumbled behind me.

“Ha, what are you worried about,” Gurek whispered, “Firi is the one he would swoon over.”

I could feel the heat from Firi’s face, radiating into the air. It may have made my smile a little larger.

“I am Zidaun, leader of the group, and like you,” I nodded to Soara, “a sensor with other abilities mixed in.”

I pointed toward Inda.

“Apparently, I should also introduce my female companion after myself. This is Inda, a control and ranged specialist.”

I gestured toward Gurek next.

“This is Gurek, who is a bulwark with some sensory abilities mixed in.”

I finally gestured toward Firi.

“And this is Firi, he is primarily a healer, but he can also act as a bulwark at need.”

Then I turned toward Anaath and gave a small bow.

“Allow me to offer an additional greeting to you. Be welcome in embrace of my home, nephew. May it offer you sanctuary.”

He responded in turn, with a slightly deeper bow.

“May fortune favor you and our people, uncle.”

“Wait,” Gurek said, “you’re his uncle?”

“Not in any literal sense,” I said.

“If I may ask,” Soara said, “where are you from? I don’t recognize your markings.” He gestured toward Anaath, “I can tell he is from the Sunken Citadel, and I know what the Adar from Blaze Blossom Swamp look like. You have some similarities, but not the shaggy bark or thorns, plus I don’t think they have that kind of armor…”

I smiled and replied.

“You are correct, after a fashion. I was from the Blaze Blossom Swamp, but it would be more accurate now to say that I am from here. This dungeon is one of our sacred places. I was the first here and that tied me to it. I expect you will see plenty of Adar with markings like me in the future.”

Soara’s grin grew wider with my reply.

“Fascinating,” he said. “Now, why-”

Tarrae coughed loudly.

“Before you interrogate them, Soara, perhaps we should all go inside and sit down?”

Soara’s face flashed briefly with embarrassment, though it swiftly ended. His exuberance returning to the fore almost immediately.

“Of course Tarrae. How inconsiderate of me.” He slapped his forehead with a dramatic motion. “What a fool I was, leaving these fine people outside in the…” He paused and looked around at the omnipresent night motionless on the cavern ceiling above us. “Well… out in darkness anyway, even if I cannot strictly say it is outside.”

He gestured toward the door.

“There is, if I recall correctly, a large sitting room on the ground floor. Please follow us inside.”

Having already become familiar with our own building and, if briefly, exploring this one, navigating was not difficult. The building was an inverted copy of our own.

We soon found ourselves seated on comfortable padded wooden chairs. Small tables sat in various corners and between some chairs, while the center of the room was bare and held a large plush rug. The wooden beams of the ceiling were visible and an almost opaque, but very thin, marble chandelier held chunks of mana crystal. The light shown through the marble with a muted splendor.

The room was still divided between the various teams, with us on one side and them on the other. Once we had each settled down, I began.

“So, we promised to share a bit about the dungeon.”

==POV: Caden==

The meeting between the two different groups had proven uneventful. I was glad they weren’t trying to kill each other, but with Zidaun and his party so close to entering my actual dungeon, I was growing impatient.

I was much more excited that I finally recognized another type of creature.

I had never though I would be so happy to see a spider.

The spider was a very efficient form, and since they appeared anywhere on this planet, I was surprised I hadn’t see anywhere in the entire sewer.

Different selection pressures maybe? Honestly, it was hard to account for how magic would change everything.

I wanted to just take all the insects and spider right away, but I only managed to do it when I promised myself that I would give a genuinely good reward to this team later to compensate them.

A shard of attention stayed focused on all of them, but most of myself was busy elsewhere.

Most of the environments I had created were something that I could imagine being on Earth, if more dramatic than nature usually was. My forest was the exception, but that had been carefully crafted with that effect.

Regardless, the seeds and plants I had absorbed from within the sewer and on the surface outside it, would mostly blend in on Earth just fine. There were two small flowering plants that had leaves of unusual colors and very vibrant flowers, but nothing so exceptional that t felt alien.

That was not the case with the plants I had absorbed from the adventurer’s offerings. One tree was short with a thick base surrounded with a layer of green leaves. It then tapered in and up until the crown. The crown’s branches went out and then back in, meeting at the top. The fruit it produced were bright red and varied from the size of a man’s fist to the size of their head. Considering the tree was only four or five feet tall, the fruit seemed oddly over-sized. The nuts they had given me were from what I could only call a blue leaved sunflower. Large sky blue leaves rose up to frame a yellow flower. In the middle of the flower it produced thin shelled seeds.

Zidaun and the others ate the seeds whole, roasted and salted. I considered it fortunate that the entire handful they gave me had been enough to fully recreate the plant. I was sure that cooking the seeds had damaged the DNA.

All of the plants were like that. Exceptionally vivid flowers, odd structures, and strange leaf colors were common amongst each of them. I was looking forward to seeing what the other team would give me.

Fortunately enough, though the teams did sit and talk for several hours, occasionally bringing out a map which the new team copied, they soon left.

Zidaun and his group showed them the arc of Iridescent Murkwood beside the road as they headed toward my dungeon entrance. The new team took samples, and I decided to switch how harvesting from the trees would be allowed. For now, a small portion of root, twig, and several leaves could be removed each day.

The two groups moved on until the new group had received the identification tags I had created. Each one’s mana signature was collected and then their information was bound into the crystal tag. From their, Zidaun and group pointed to each trial they had undertaken, while the new people took notes. It didn’t take much thought to know they were pointing out the location of each trial and what it was.

That didn’t really bother me though. I wasn’t sure how much advanced knowledge would actually help them complete each one. They pointed at the magic sensitivity trial, which they had yet to take, and shrugged.

Then they showed them what I was excited about. My sacrifice room.

Ultimately I gained a few new things. Some types of wood, seeds and fruit, a few types of meat, and a new type of fiber. I was pretty sure it was some type of wool, and the faint traces of DNA in it matched up with one of the meats they provided. I gave them full credit for the cloth sample anyway. They also gave up a few of the heat producing stones.

There was the matter of the few insects that had entered with them and their packs. I wasn’t sure how to give them credit for those. I would figure that out later.

For now I went off to grow the new plants; it was time to compare them to other ones I had grown.

==POV: Zidaun==

Carefully going over the details of the dungeon we had mapped out so far had taken a fair amount of time. Each of us had our notes and had provided commentary as we went along.

Like I had suspected, they were a new first exploration team. And someone had failed to tell them they were supposed to avoid contaminating the new dungeon before it was mapped.

Honestly, with a dungeon at this level of development, it didn’t matter

Then a quick tour of the road, dungeon entrance, and the buildings had given them the rest of the context they might need.

They had told us they still needed to check out the room and everything else for themselves, however. It was the expected outcome, but our help should still save them tons of time. They also promised to share anything they found that we had missed.

After they finished with their offerings to the dungeon, we split ways.

We left and entered the last trial.

It proved anticlimactic.

Arranged in a row in the testing chamber were ten identical seeming blocks of copper. Inside, I could sense mana crystal.

Caden showed up as a stone statue and pointed to the mana crystal that was practically blazing with mana. He put it on the waiting pedestal and the door to the next room opened.

I wasn’t sure if the others could sense the mana from this distance, but I explained what the test was about anyway.

Then I went through and found almost all of the test laughably easy. I was borrowing the dungeon’s own abilities, so that was hardly surprising.

However, even with that, I failed to be able to discern which block had more mana in it after many rooms. The last few rooms the mana in the blocks had become increasingly minuscule. I could sense another room on the other side of the door, with even more blocks waiting if I managed to get through this room.

Though I was borrowing from the dungeon, I was obviously unable to access the full depth of its capabilities.

Finally, I placed a block on the pedestal. It was the wrong one, so I left.

The others were already waiting for me. It was only mid-afternoon, and the day had not proven particularly tiring. Together we made a quick decision.

It was time to enter the dungeon.

End of Arc 3