Terse Elements

Two weeks later, Oz reentered the dungeon. He was accompanied by a well-muscled man who was half a head shorter than Oz but with much broader shoulders. The newcomer wore leather and fur and carried a curious bow. Four points on the bow shaft sparkled bright blue and the bowstring seemed to have a thread of blue woven through it. The man had golden fur across his shoulders and back, and his chest was covered with a scaly brown hide. He wore a short, grey wool skirt over his bare legs and his foot wrappings were a similar color to the fur on his shoulders. Around his forehead he wore a circlet made from yellow knuckle bones. Next to Oz, the newcomer looked powerful and wealthy.

“There, Andy, there’s all your precious new bugs. All the crawling things your little heart could desire” Oz sullenly folded his arms in front of his chest.

_ Higher Life Intruder Group Detected. Select Automated Response:

Attack

Claim (Unlikely)

Dominate (Unlikely)

Ignore

_

_ Random Selection: “Attack” selected _

Dozens of millipedes, beetles, spiders, lice, frogs, salamanders, and bats turned toward the two humans. Hill Lord Andebert shoved Oz out of the exit while shouting, “Run Osmund!” Andebert did not follow his cousin in leaving the dungeon. He drew a knife from his belt and begin to dart back and forth through the dungeon creatures. The hill lord moved so quickly he seemed to be just an image of a man flashing around the worldlet. Every place his image appeared, a dungeon creature died. The dungeon creatures died from a knife cutting through them or a foot stomping them, or a fist smashing them out of the air. The sound of the fighting was oddly muted and was mostly the buzz of beetle wings and the croaking of frogs, but the sound was sudden enough that it startled all the unclaimed creatures that still resided in the main worldlet. Andebert did not kill indiscriminately and kept his blows to creatures that were clearly attacking or unnaturally sized.

Oz ran back in through the dungeon entrance with a large stone in each hand. He stopped two steps inside the entrance when he saw that the floor of the worldlet was covered in smashed and sliced dungeon creatures. Andebert finished killing the last of the flying attackers and turned to glare at Oz. Oz looked around in angry disbelief, “I was only out there long enough to find two stones. Rotting goblin teeth, how?”

“Stay there.” Andebert’s voice held a furious warning. He began stalking soundlessly around the worldlet. Every few paces, he would twitch a vine aside or poke at a pile of leaves. A few claimed creatures had hidden to try an ambush, but the hill lord ferreted them all out. Off to one side of the entrance, Andebert nearly stepped back in shock when he moved a vine aside to find a spider the size of a large dog. The spider did not move. Andebert waited for it to attack; it had surely seen him by now. The spider still did not move. Andebert poked one of its legs with his knife. No response. The motionless spider had been Dominated by the dungeon weeks ago and had not moved since except to shift its feet as it grew.

Andebert finally stepped back and let the vine fall back in place. His face showed baffed confusion. He looked over at Osmund and sighed. The boy—well, maybe he was a man now—sat on his heels with his arms folded over his knees, glaring at the floor. Andebert took a few steps toward the middle of the worldlet and picked up a long, pointed stick. He took the stick over to Osmund and tapped it on the ground, saying, “Do you want some free experience, cousin?”

Oz jumped up, “My spear!” Aside from being filthy, the spear was in fine condition. Oz took the offered spear. “What free experience?”

Andebert gestured in the direction of the spider. “There’s some weird big spider over there but it’s not moving or reacting to anything. You can just stab it in the head.”

Oz looked unsure. “Big spider? Are you sure it’s not just natural?”

Andebert shook his head. “Much too big. Come look.”

Oz spooked and jumped back when he saw the size of the spider. “Burning bones! That’s not a ‘big spider’ that’s a rotting giant spider!”

Andebert squinted at the spider. “Hmm, it’s definitely a ‘lesser spider’. Don’t know why it’s so large or why it’s paralyzed right now, but it’s the last dungeon creature in here. Go ahead and kill it, then we can leave.”

“Why couldn’t we just leave anyway?” Oz asked.

“If we leave this dungeon floor without killing every creature, the dungeon will gain experience for driving us off. Best to be thorough and slow down the dungeon development until I can get it inspected. I saw some lice in here, those will have to be dealt with soon if it’s not too late.”

With significant hesitation, Oz stepped forward and stabbed his spear into the spider’s head. The spider twitched for a moment, then collapsed. As the spider’s body hit the ground, the mental connection between the dungeon core vine and the spider was violently severed. Without a mind to localize it, mental pain shot through the entire dungeon vine plant. The sudden and sharp pain shocked the plant’s stress systems and the whole dungeon reacted. Leaves on every branch of the vine shook and many dropped. The blue vine sprayed water out in such a flood that the clay mud floor around it was pushed back and a small pond formed. The acid vine dripped out acid from every root and filled the air in the stony worldlet with acrid smoke. Water and mana shot back and forth from all the branches of the vine. Around the dungeon core, water, and all the mana alignments the vine had, began swirling together to try and flow toward the ‘wound’ of the dead spider. The System detected the swirling mana and recognized a spell.

_ Spell Unlocked: “Acid Spray” _

_ New Spawn Mutation Available: “Acid Alignment (spray)” _

Andebert looked around at the trembling and dropping leaves. “Huh. This dungeon might have a temper. Maybe we killed its favorite pet. Anyway, now we leave.” He and his cousin walked out the dungeon exit.