> Warning: Mana has reached maximum levels of both density and purpose. Please Stand by…

> Intelligence has increased by 2.

> Please select a new arrangement for all dungeon Points of Interest to reduce crowding.

Dungeon feels smarter after mushroom grass took over the field, and trees turned red. Dead invader also helped be feeding mana, but dungeon mutated into a better version. Its mana found purpose after a battle, just like a monster. That means dungeon can evolve into a better dungeon! Yes, big and strong evolution to get all the kills and food.

Before anything can change, the fight almost damaged the core. Defenses aren’t strong enough, so monsters must be stronger and use the new dungeon environment to their advantage. The mushroom field has a haze of spores that will blind people, but it also blinds the trees that need sunlight to grow. The overlap makes mana so dense trees can’t grow, and mana won’t cycle, so core is hungry. To fix dungeon needs to make the forest and field not overlap.

The annoying words of System might be right, it is time for dungeon to move. With a great push of mana, earth shifts as the young saplings uproot and walk south so they can catch all incoming invaders. Forest of red will see the most blood and food. It craves blood, and dungeon will let it grow.

The glowing tree of Echo stands tall over his children as he cast rays of plant growth down upon them. They will grow big as if Shimmer helped them, and soon they will become forest capable of further evolutions. With all the bird nests in the trees, the forest should develop immortality like the birds, but the forest is not the bird’s home. They are still tied to their spawner, which needs a lot of height so they can fall further and faster, and trees are not good for that. For best distance to fall, their spawner is pushed west to the top of the mountain.

The mountain has a lot of crevices for birds to hide things in. Shiny things they collect. Not sure when they started that, but they steal metal and create little cashes for their finds. Dungeon doesn’t know if it’s helpful, but all monsters are weird.

> I’m impressed by the lack of faults in your logic.

> With dungeon restructuring, one of the following landscape archetypes may be applied for assistance with restructuring: environment, warzone, training ground, gauntlet, dark tower, castle-

Dungeon has made the decision it wants to be a place it can eat food. None of these options do that, so Dungeon will go back to doing things its way.

Another wave of mana shoves the mycelium further away. Roots snake through the dirt as they run from the Core, forced to move east and out of the shadow of the mountain. The spore haze fades as the mushrooms settle on the far side of Shimmer’s farm, an entire hill away. She has grown golden grain on that farm, which stands out like a bright beacon against the spore haze, so dungeon’s amber core experiment worked.

With the knowledge of poison that the elves used to kill the birds, the dungeon can create traps. The birds have to be kept separate otherwise they will die, but the mushrooms like poisons, especially airborne ones. Mana weaves and spreads through the field to find an excellent candidate to fill with so much energy it mutates.

> The following poison effects are known and can be applied: Insecticide, mild numbing, inhaled-

Dungeon doesn’t need to be told the options, it has a plan. It knows what it wants. It will make a trap that induces pain as it hurts all people who enter the haze. This will be its greatest ploy.

> New Species Created: Cap-saicin Shroom - a very spicy plant.

Every time its wide-brimmed cap is disturbed, it will induce pain to all who touch it. With enough mana, it will evolve to make the sensation of suffering airborne and inflict misery on everyone who breathes! Now monsters need to move here so they can finish off people as they writhe in pain, but the monsters have to not feel pain themselves. This is a job for the slimes to tend the misery mushrooms.

> Shimmer’s title has evolved due to location. Apprentice Alchemist has become Synthesizer - Capable of reproducing any poison in her body or in the plants she tends.

Shimmer will become a master of murder, and all will be harmed by her light!

“No thanks, I wanna make friends instead.” She unhelpfully spoke her mind.

Shimmer, it is your destiny as the strongest slime in the dungeon; it is your job to kill everyone, for you are rivaled only by- Ok, Shimmer’s role in all plans to murder have been postponed. Dungeon just remembered about the slime paragon it created.

The Slime’s spawner is hidden under a bunch of mushrooms, but the orange slime that climbs out of it is very easy to see. Its body has consumed and become one with all the ingredients of its birth, the amber cores and acid seeds merging into a slime of magical corrosion. Liquid and ready to hold mana, as its body is a core. System, you may now speak to tell me the magnificents of this creation, and prove that you are unneeded.

> Paragon created by non-standard means.

Race: Spell Slime

Name: Murder

Spawner: Slime Couldren

Speed: 10

Strength: 45

Int: 73

HP: 500

Emotion:

Diet: Carrion

Racial Ability: (Spell Slime)

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Mana Core

30% magic resistance as its entire body absorbs mana.

Paragon Ability:

Miasma Aura

A toxic fog follows the Paragon and rots all things healthy.

> You are not naming the paragon ‘Murder.’ If you need to give it a name, let Shimmer choose.

“Can we name them Ted?” The light of her body cut through the purple haze as she approached the paragon.

No.

> Inquiry: Dungeon possesses no knowledge of carrion, corpses, decay, or miasma, as it has not encountered dead left alone long enough to rot, so how did this slime develop the ability?

It’s too cold for things to rot out here, and there is no reason not to eat food. Food just goes to waste if its rots.

> Distressed: “But how do you know that?”

Dungeon doesn’t need to justify what it knows to the always buzzing System. Instead, it will move on and make sure everything else is ready and full of mana. The more things that evolve, the better the dungeon gets, and the sooner it can evolve further, and be better than “Arcane Core.”

Now that surface is done, time to have the ants dig a massive cave network for the core. It’s lair needs to be deep underground so people can’t find it, and the ants are good at digging. This way it will be protected from people with a shovel.

----------------------------------------

> Without Oversight: Unchained Mutation - the result of proximity to “Echo” and their destabilized nature.

Eggs laid by the sick,

The unchained children are free.

Spawnerless, they fly.

Nestled in safety,

The tree of red will watch them,

It will see them fly.

The system is blind,

Arrogance is their ruin,

Which leaves us alone

----------------------------------------

The table arrangement changed as Joulo found herself at the center of the party. Though the people who lined up waiting to talk to her continued to grow, it was the ones who milled about that unnerved her. It was hard enough to focus on the game, but the snippets of conversation she overheard made it worse.

“I see a wheat mutation, ill bet a month’s bread supply its durum based.”

“Please, Myriad is over there, so it’s clearly wild barely.”

“I see a new species of mushrooms. Anyone wanna bet I can get a sample of that in a game?”

“Just don’t get distracted by Tyliana this time, and you might just stand a chance.”

They continued to bicker and bet, but Joulo had to focus, as the line before her was getting longer and longer. It wasn’t just gods of the wilderness, but a dozen gods of civilization who were eager to leave their mark on the first new dungeon in a decade. Adventurers, warriors, scholars and farmers were just a few of the domains she could pick out. The mortals were gearing up to explore her domain at the edge of the world, so as much as she wanted to rush and see them all, she knew every moment mattered. She couldn’t lose focus for a single moment, especially not as a new challenger took a seat at her table.

Adorned in a billowing cap that shimmered as it shifted between distinct patterns of camo, the god of glorious last stands took his seat. He pointedly ignored Tyliana’s glare as he introduced himself.

“I’m Trench, god of the last stands, and not to be confused with Fox, god of trenches, and I’m here for a game. With all the adventurers you’re going to meet, I want a stake in the tales of the survivors.”

“Don’t you have a war to worry about?” Tyliana spat from her place at Joulo’s side. “Come on, that entire war of the great mages that has been all the rage for the past five years, wasn’t that super hyped up because it was going to be so great and relevant?”

Trench met Tyliana’s barbed remarks with a shrug. “Yeah, and while the start was a glorious display of power and tactics that obliterated everything below the horizon- sorry about that- the war has stagnated and will slowly fall out of favor over the next year, so I’m just trying to get ahead of it.”

Joulo glanced at the tight-knit group of gods who all waged war for profit. They had been boisterous just a few years ago, but it would seem their interest had died down after all their favorite heroes died off. The lack of soldiers of mass destruction clearly halted any real headway in their games.

“So now you’re here, but what sort of game do you want to play?” Joulo cautiously asked, unsure of his angle.

“No game, no cards played, just a bet and a deal. Since this war will official ends and they will draw new lines on the maps, but all those mortals still need to be distracted. When that happens a lot of people and resources will be sent your way.” He gestured to all the people behind him, each eager for their chance to do something.

His words made Joulo hesitate. She had space if any refugees needed to move in, and ever since the mortal’s knowledge of dungeons was purged, she knew her dungeon would be safe. To her, it wasn’t a choice, but she held her tongue and forced herself to at least think it over, which created a silence Tyliana broke without hesitation.

“Yes yes, thank you for the history lesson, but I already knew all that because of the bird's-eye view I had of you killing anything that flew. But you haven’t made your point yet. I’m around Myriad enough to know when people are talking without a point.” She angrily gestured towards the celestial of numbers, who met everyone’s gaze with a happy little wave. Clearly just happy to be included.

“She has a point,” Myriad took the cue as their turn to talk. “Only the one with countless words and useless points should ramble so much so. As I would know, as the very one who has mastered the technique of saying a lot and meaning so little. But even then, I at least try to get to my point eventually, even if I didn’t have one when I started talking. There is joy in the journey to take some time to meander as I eventually reach my point. Anyway, what were we talking about? Something about you being bored with war?”

The three sets of eyes looking towards Trench made him hesitate before sighing. “Look, I don’t have long-term champions or stakes in everyday occurrences. All my cards are actions instead of people, as I can only imbue a single person with the strength of a hero’s sacrifice, but never anything more. I heard there was a god over here that didn’t like it when people died, and figured we could strike a simple deal.”

The sincerity caught Joulo off guard. She had known few gods that would actually tell the truth, even when pressed. She was never a decisive goddess, but the thought of giving in and helping him didn’t feel like one she had to think hard on. Her dungeon wanted people dead, she wanted different, and there was a god that was offering to help make that a reality.

In the three years since her hunger, not much had really changed. The gamblers in the hollowed halls continued to bet with lives and lied to do it, but there was something new in their minds. They knew her name, and a few showed their true colors and accepted that gods could change. Three gods, out of three thousand. It wasn’t much, but it was a shimmer of change that gave her hope.

“Trench,” she forced herself to look him in the eye, “I have my conditions. Since you won’t be playing against other gods you can’t sit at this table as we need the space. Is that alright? Wait, yes it is. That’s how it will be. Additionally, you may not affect my terrain, so no trenches, and no telling us what to do- if that’s alright. So yeah, as long as it is to protect the downtrodden, I will give you my permission to join our game with the mortals.”

A content smile filled his face as he bowed deeply. “I accept those terms, and shall always be in the wings as your safety net.”

Change wouldn’t come overnight, but with every god that wanted better, the future looked that much brighter. Trench stood as Joulo sighed happily to herself as she turned to face the god that was next in line. It would take years to get through this line, but that was alright, since she was having fun for the first time she could remember. With friends at her side, she had the confidence to face whatever came next. So, as the god of mice and milk sat down at their table, she was ready.