From Vaughn’s loose understanding of dungeons from his rather copious steam library collection of video games containing phrases such as ‘dungeon crawler’ and the like, dungeons were basically an interconnected maze of rooms in which monsters spawned from.

Unfortunately, the entire genre of dungeon crawling probably came from the tabletop-game-involving-character-sheets-that-must-not-be-named, and that concept itself originated from the medieval European idea of castles with dungeons–underground jails where the unruly or political prisoners were thrown in to rot–and theories of witchcraft, Christianity, and paganism, thus explaining why 'healers' in video games were aesthetically based on the clergy.

Dungeons in the video game sense were originally born from the imagination of those medieval castle residents whose thoughts dwelled unbidden upon the exploration of those dark, cold, and scary underground rows of cells and corridors, a world packed with giant rats and skeletons hiding around every corner.

Medieval imagination, plus several centuries and the advent of computing, led to the development of the modern dungeon crawling rpg genre, where those figments of imagination became [Level 1 Skeletons] to be bashed in for experience.

In a video game, the player or band would invariably traverse a dungeon, defeating a tremendous amount of monsters while progressing their own levels. However, for there to be so many monsters for the player to defeat, there had to be some kind of mechanic behind introducing monsters.

Now there were many different kinds of ways to accomplish this task of supplying a group of adventurers with adequate amounts of monsters to defeat. And trust me, you didn’t want to deprive adventurers from monster experience pinatas for them to defeat, or they’d turn their monster-deprived anger towards innocent folk.

Random encounters, scripted events; these were some of the many ways to supply adventurers with enough monsters to satisfy their insatiable cocaine fueled leveling up addiction.

After careful observation of the slime dungeon, Vaughn had a hunch that the method being used to replenish monster stock here was a so-called dungeon reset.

In short, the dungeon would refresh periodically, reverting back to its original state. Slimes would appear again in their designated spawn points, and in the same number as before.

But there was a problem with that.

If the dungeon just kept refreshing back to its original state, that was great and all, but where the hell was the god damn treasure hidden?

Hawkin Thriftyfingers had emerged from Vaughn’s ego, as his entire soul was gripped with a searing desire to uncover the bottom of this mystery at any cost, even if it meant that he had to dig up the whole cave as all the other outlanders moved on with their lives and did actually productive things.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Aw yeah, that’s my tenth slime!” a young outlander cried, holding up his slime gel as a prize.

Vaughn had been quick with defeating slimes, showcasing a somewhat practiced talent for that sort of thing that may or may not have involved sessions in front of a mirror practicing some moves he read in a grappling comic. Alright, he’ll admit it, he did kind of copy some moves and do them in front of a mirror, as embarrassing as that sounded.

He was trying to break the monotony of daily life, alright?

To get back to the original point, other outlanders were catching up to the frontrunners if they started to slack, and Vaughn had been pretty much sitting on a rock, slacking for the last half hour.

He couldn’t give less of a shit right now, though.

Dhunnim ‘il Dharral was right. True names did shed some light onto a person’s mental state, and Vaughn Hallows was currently well and truly Hawkin Thriftyfingers, on the hunt for a treasure trail with a mesmerized, burning focus that had completely wiped out his desire to accomplish all of his other objectives, including learning magic, exploring the rest of the world, or even socializing and eating.

To put it simply, Vaughn Hallows was acting like a dragon that got a whiff of gold.

Your zodiac affinity with [Dragons] has increased.

Your existence has become more defined, and a mysterious force has taken notice of you for the first time.

Huh? Vaughn blinked, looking over that second notification once more. He looked around the room, pondering what that meant, but nothing happened. Maybe it was the system messing with him again. Either way, there was nothing immediately actionable about that particular piece of information about a mysterious force noticing him, so he’d just record that in his memory for later.

Vaughn brushed away the notification, focusing on counting once again for the next dungeon reset. He held his breath and waited.

Another cycle passed, and the slime groups all refreshed themselves like usual. The ceiling changed for a brief moment like before, but this time the golden glow was fainter.

Becky Oak, sweating like a hog, wiped her forehead with her sleeve while calling up to Vaughn from down below.

“Hey pardner, what’re you doin up there? All the big ‘uns are getting taken if you just sit around like that! And look, I already finished the mission, see?” she said, holding up a sack with a sword and crest painted on it. Several weapons were sticking out of the sack.

“This here’s the newbie adventurer starter pack, and it’s got all sortsa goodies inside. There’s a sword, a bow, ‘nd everything else ya need for those class quests. So get goin’ pardner!”

Vaughn nodded. “I will,” he replied, “But just give me another hour.”

He resolved to observe one more dungeon reset cycle to see if he could spot any patterns. Sitting patiently as everyone else leveled up, Vaughn felt a nagging sense of guilt about willingly falling behind everyone for the time being, but he would keep with his word and try for one more cycle.

The next cycle began right on time, and the same thing occurred as last time. His heart raced when he saw the golden glow once more, but it was even fainter this time around. It soon faded.

[Your Treasure Sense is desensitizing to this Path, as you have already perceived it.]

Alright. He was going nowhere with this. Vaughn grabbed his handy stick and leapt down from the rock, attacking the slimes once again.

It was getting late in the evening now, and some outlanders were beginning to retire from the cave.