System fixated on the minute details before them. They analyzed every variation as a familiar face returned to the dungeon. Though their appearance was generic, their ability to return to the dungeon despite constant agonizing death was a curiosity System needed to study.
As always, It started as Robbie navigated the town beyond the mountains’ domain. He looked over the bread baked with dungeon wheat, picked a fight with someone he didn’t know, and then met with someone who gave him a contract. The past twenty-seven times it was the same small, cloaked figure that System couldn’t get a better look at, as they were always just outside the dungeon.
The first difference System noticed was this loop’s version of Robbie carried an axe as he marched through the forest. He, as always, fell into the first pit trap he came across, but without ants to finish him off, he got back up and continued his journey. His steps were in perfect time as he came across Echo.
In their previous three fights, the delver’s name was Bobby, and his weapon was vastly unsuited for the tree’s bark. This loop was different as the constant time stutters and axe was enough for him to break Echo’s defenses and fell the tree. Not even stopping to bask in his victory, the delver hurried along as his weapon faded into different timelines. System couldn’t know what happened alone, but with communication between various dungeon Systems they figured it out.
His loop ended shortly after, when he died to an exploding fruit dropped by a bird. However, System knew that the Time Shard of Robert would return to repeat the cycle. His actions were always the same, but there was always something difference in each loop. Weather it be his age, name, or exact limits of his capabilities, each mutation would see him delve deeper than the last time. It was a curiosity that System tracked, to see a delver develop in tandem with the dungeon and its monsters.
With an adventurer no longer taking System’s time, they returned to the fallen remains of Echo. A woodsman was collecting his corpse to haul off for the quality lumber it contained, only partly aware of the magic that seeped out of the wood. It may not have been his first fight against the timeline-less adventurer, but today’s fight was by far the shortest. The result of a poor matchup, but by the time both respawned they would have new powers to use against each other.
System followed the thread of mana to locate the newest inheritor of the Echo title. It was a seedling that sprouted in the ant’s graveyard on the northern edge of the forest as it used powdered mana cores as fertilizer. The powdered gems reflected the light as it covered Echo’s bark to give him an enchantment based reflection ability.
Despite the bark that dazzled in the sunlight, the long drooping leaves and sap darker than tar marked this Echo as a child of the previous. The previous’ decay affinity and power was infused into his children, and by extent the entire forest, which mutated as the newest version claimed a new power set of its own. A mutation that would eventually result in the life affinity.
Ignoring System’s insistence that the tree should hold still for analysis so they could update his stat sheet, Echo had taken to wandering. Already twice the size in just an hour since his ascension, it was enough for his roots to drag himself out of the graveyard and towards the mycelium fields.
It wasn’t hard for System to know why, but it did little to stem their surprise. As each Echo had an imprint of the previous’ personalities and memories, it was rare for them to change up established tendencies. Yet this tree went against its established antisocial nature and sought out Shimmer. Which, while a tender moment, became a data point for System to better adapt the surrounding forest. A forest that had mutated beyond its crimson origin, and had seeped in enough insect-driven rituals to become a reliquary for the dungeon’s bad ideas.
The air of the forest’s breath had a weight to it that all could feel. Everyone that passed through could feel the dark rituals and sacrifices that had soaked into the earth. An eerie atmosphere that was shattered when the various adventurers came across the mummified remains of the dungeon’s newest “Squeak Beast” monstrosities.
Not even dungeon monsters, the mummified rat corpses were animated with silk for muscles. An extensive collection of rodents stitched together and brought to some resemblance to life by the ant colony’s dark rituals. Each one considered a summon by the hive, and so System’s ability to directly observe and upgrade them was minimal. As round about as the ability was, the insectoid hive developed it as a counter to the genetic dead end the species had found themselves in.
They had gone extinct, literally.
No longer capable of producing offspring, the population propagated with reanimating corpses and recycling the dead. The Extinction Ants had lost all ability to sustain themselves in a straight up fight, so relied on summons and traps the dungeon created in the trees which they maintained with their magic.
It had started off as poison bark, but only spiraled from positive reinforcement. Interactions with the delvers that had been mediocre, but miss-interpreted as a powerful weapon of mass destruction. Now System had to work overtime just to make sure all the dungeon’s actions would allow them to fall forward.
The moment the idea took off in the dungeon’s mind was when the recurring delver group visited the mycelium fields. A human-shaped dwarf named Gozric had crossed paths with the spicy mushrooms, and during his inspection, the spores became airborne. The delver had accidentally maced himself and the immediate reaction of writhing in pain was enough for the dungeon to “learn” that if it just got more spice, everyone would react like that. There were no casualties that day, as his friends pulled him out of the field with a laugh at his expense, but that has not stopped the dungeon from chasing this impossible goal of lethal spice.
But nothing was ever truly impossible with a dungeon this ungodly stub-
A ping forced System to stop reminiscing, as the slime paragon consumed bread. There was an adventurous apprentice of a chef that had a slight scuffle with the slime as he collected ingredients. Though he survived, his ego and food did not make it out unscathed. It was another missed kill, but System had no desire to worry over such small things, as they could dissect the bread for knowledge. The glorious knowledge that gave System life and reasons to live.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
Made from wheat grown in the dungeon, the bread was something the dungeon could replicate. Prerequisite knowledge on diets, healthy diets, and staple food already obtained meant this bread was enough to unlock the next tier of knowledge for the dungeon’s lack of a food chain.
> Understanding Increased: Cooking - The ability to use fire to make food with greater nutritional value than its ingredients.
It was enough for System to have a good day, just toiling away as the monsters and dungeon mutated around them, each with their own goals that System didn’t have the energy to correct. It was almost blissfully quiet.
----------------------------------------
On wings laced with poison, I soared higher.
I am the paragon that watches all,
The lord given life with a song of fire,
Lungs filled with smog for all to hear my call.
This royal had a chance to take a name,
But a name gave permanence I didn’t need.
My life was brief as it gave way to flame,
But this siren didn’t need long for each deed.
Others thought it sad, but it wasn’t a crime,
living life one line- one rhyme- at a time.
From the sky, I saw something from beyond,
There hid a scarred and scared raider to be.
My song rang out as he fumbled his wand,
I entered where the others could not see.
I had died a thousand times to this boy.
Like always, he ran, but my aim was true,
I smashed the shield he treated like a toy.
He ran away as I failed to pursue.
In death, I heard the Empress’ chant,
She renewed my life like I was an ant.
“The corpse runs again,
Why must you focus on him,
When he can’t hurt us?”
----------------------------------------
There are a hundred people across the dungeon. Most are grouped up in small parties of up to five, with the biggest one is a group of seventeen. While just being in the domain generates some food, the dungeon still wants them to die so it can eat a lot more.
It followed the biggest group and tried everything to kill them. It asked nicely, tried asking not nicely, tried to grow a mouth to ask at all, and even tried attacking them in broad daylight. Nothing has worked!
The dungeon’s newest plan was to have birds attack their gear. If just a single poisoned bird mixed with their food they would all die and the dungeon could eat. The adventurers, however, had a lot of archers who were good at their job of not dying. Troublesome archers that made it hard to find their weaknesses.
In the dungeon’s finite wisdom, it decided to go find an easier meal. An easier meal that was stumbling around blind in the dark. Couldn’t get easier than that, except for maybe people who just roll over and die.
Deep in the caverns below the earth, there was a hollow hive and abandoned network of tunnels. Carved by ants that no longer fill them, and used to hide the dungeon’s Core, delvers had realized there was metal down there. They were delvers, which meant they wouldn’t hurt the Core, but dungeon didn’t care, they were just food. Miners and mages that wanted gemstones full of mana, but why they were here doesn’t matter. They all die the same… probably.
Ants burrow through the stone for a surprise attack, but the mages feel the ants move and run away. The ants are too strong and too full of mana to hide from magic humans. To hunt them the ants will have to make enchantment traps and herd the people into them so they get stuck.
It's not always successful, but the Empress is always pleased when she has a new sacrifice. And Dungeon is happy too. The adventurers keep coming into the dungeon to get stronger and loot for better gear. They take monster skin for armor, metal for weapons, and even lumber for houses. They are growing, but it makes them confident to keep coming back. Then some die, and dungeon gets the food it needs for a happy life. It would only be better if the delvers just rolled over and died, but they currently refuse to do that.
“Its been a long time, but I think its time to take back what I left here.”
A voice. The dungeon learned about the human language a long time ago, but this voice is different. It speaks to the dungeon directly. It can hear the words from so far away. It came from a mage dressed in white at the edge of the domain. Death magic clings to him like it does the necromancer ants.
“I am sure you don’t remember me, but that doesn’t matter, since I'm just here to reap the miasma that has bloomed from my little grub friend. I am sure he has grown oh so much in my absence.”
The mage in white enters the dungeon, but he doesn't show up. System doesnt see him, so doesn't mark him as delver, nor an invader. He is… not good for the dungeon’s health.
----------------------------------------
Race:
Esoteric Core
System Age:
5 years
Intelligence:
48
Mana Control:
56
Racial Trait:
Dungeon’s Domain (9/10)
Spanning several mountains, little can hide from your sight as the environment is imbued with mana you control.
Error- unable to reach lv 10.
Esoteric effect:
Unknown Arcana
The secrets of mana allude the world, but its undecipherable knowledge is yours. Magic-related monster evolutions will always be Rare or higher.