Terse Elements

A small snake entered the dungeon. It hesitated for a split second, then raced under the nearest fallen leaves to hide from the big flying things. The snake only got a moment of rest before a millipede crawled under the same pile of leaves. The snake reacted instinctually and zipped away from the threat and towards deeper darkness. Further in the pile of leaves, the snake tried to burrow a little into the ground. It was of a toothless species that fed mainly on worms.

_ Intruder Detected. Select Automated Response:

Absorb

Banish

Mutate

Claim

Dominate

Ignore

_

_ Random Selection: “Claim” selected _

_ Spawn Unlocked: Lesser Snake _

The snake began to absorb dungeon mana. It quickly grew to adult size, then slowly continued growing as the mana filled it. Snakes began to spawn across the dungeon, with similar success to the millipedes and the salamanders. In the acid rain worldlet, the first acid-aligned snake to spawn had gained fangs. In the underwater worldlet, an air bubble snake had a hard time navigating the underwater worldlet, with only the tip of its tail reaching into the water until it grew larger.

The first people that noticed the dungeon snakes were not pleased. The largest of the snakes would eat the giant butterflies when they could catch them, and the number of water-aligned snakes did not make up for the loss in butterfly wings. A few days later, one man lost a foot to a strike from an acid-aligned snake. All the harvesters agreed that he was lucky that the acid burned through his ankle instead of traveling through his blood.

Dara felt two emotions as he walked towards the dungeon with the other harvesters. The first emotion was worry. He worried about his father who had lost his foot to some awful snake. He also worried for himself and his ability to replace his father in the harvester group. He worried about the dungeon monsters, though he was supposed to stay near the exit because he was both young and new to harvesting. The second emotion was exasperation; the walk to the dungeon was so long and so boring. The containers Dara carried were bouncing around weird and it was no fun. The path to the dungeon had been trampled by the many harvesters and there was nothing interesting to look at.

Dara leaned out past the edge of the path to see the people near the front. It looked like they were turning to the right cross a short bridge made of cut tree limbs. Dara instantly left the path to take a shortcut. He wasn’t afraid of splashing across a little stream, not like these older people who couldn’t handle a bit of mud. The spring weather had caused most things in the forest to be damp and soggy, so he didn’t make much noise or draw any attention.

He regretted his shortcut as his leg sunk nearly up to his knee in some mud around the stream. The stream did not flow powerfully enough to clear it all away and expose roots or rocks that a young person, such as Dara, could scramble across. He nearly cried out but he couldn’t quite manage to reverse his decision to take the shortcut; after all, he had come this far already. Looking to the column of other harvesters, he saw that he was actually getting left behind. He high stepped through the mud and tried to use trees and branches to keep his balance. He came out the other side of the stream with plenty of mud and a fair amount of moss stuck on his legs and clothes. With no time to scrape off the mud, he rushed after the other harvesters. He had to vault over a mushroom covered rotting log to get back on the path.

Dara thought the dungeon doorway was interesting and he paused to look at it before stepping through the wobbly patch of air. One of the hill lord’s escort people looked up from marking a tally and saw his mud-covered legs and the splashes of mud over the rest of him.

“Hey now, who’s this goblin pup trying to enter our dungeon?” The adult grinned at Dara. “Are you Dara, standing in for your father?”

Dara tried not to sound like a kid. “That I am.” He cleared his throat. “Just slipped on the bridge back there. Should I go through now?”

The adult did not look convinced of the slipperiness of the bridge. “Not yet. Take a single step through here and stop. Don’t move forward or sidewards. Hand your baskets forward when asked and trade for full ones. Don’t try to open them. Got it?”

“I do.” said Dara.

“Go on in. If you hear any kind of screaming or yelling, turn and come right back here.” The adult marked one more on the tally as Dara stepped through the doorway.

_ Spawn Unlocked: Moss _

_ Spawn Unlocked: Lesser mushroom _

A few spawn fruit, all across the dungeon, fell and popped open to reveal a small patch of moss or a single small mushroom. Over several days, the moss and mushrooms colonized the open ground and fallen leaves of every worldlet except the acid rain worldlet and the stony worldlet. The mushrooms did not do well underwater or in the oasis worldlet but grew exceptionally well in the dark worldlet. The dark worldlet mushrooms grew into the mist off the sides of the floating clumps of pebbles and the mushroom spores drifted over to grow on the clumps of pebbles that remained out of reach of the vines... The refracted rainbow light painted many mushrooms in unusual colors.

Shortly after Dara’s harvester group left the dungeon, a snail crept through the entrance. The System detected the intruder and went through the process to select the response. The response was a mutation of the snail.

_ Intruder Detected. Select Automated Response:

Absorb

Banish

Mutate

Claim

Dominate

Ignore

_

_ Random Selection: “Mutate” Selected. Available Mutations:

Water Alignment (spray)

Acid Alignment

Low Light Vision

Air Bubble

_

_ Random Selection: “Water Alignment (spray)” Selected _

The snail turned blue and swelled to the size of a grapefruit. As the snail crawled towards the green vines, its slime loosened and allowed the snail to glide across the ground. The System still detected the snail as an intruder and repeated the process to select a response. The second response was another mutation.

_ Random Selection: “Mutate” Selected. Available Mutations:

Water Alignment (spray)

Acid Alignment

Low Light Vision

Air Bubble

_

_ Random Selection: “Acid Alignment” Selected _

The snail’s body turned yellow and its shell turned a pale green. It stopped gliding across the ground and instead left a slightly smoking trail of slime that slowly ate through the fallen leaves covering the ground. The System repeated the process and got a final response from the random selection.

_ Random Selection: “Ignore” Selected _

The acid snail reached a vine and began to ascend towards the leaves. A dark burn traced the snail’s path on the vines.