“I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about how Dungeons work, what they’re like, and if there are any nearby?” I ask.

“Hmm, as you probably already know, dungeons are dangerous places where monsters congregate. What sets a dungeon apart from its surroundings is the slightly elevated ambient mana concentration as well as the presence of beasts who cooperate to defend their homes. They can occur on the surface, or more frequently, underground. One can usually tell they’re in a dungeon when the native monsters work together to take down outsiders. They’re pretty rare, only occurring naturally in the confines of a mana well. If I remember correctly, there are three dungeons somewhere deep in the caverns underneath the capital city. Two of them are publicly accessible, the one closest to the surface is filled with spongy growths and devouring worms, the other is a fungal expanse which is partially colonized and used for magic herb and livestock cultivation. The one barred from the public is a little over 4 km beneath the surface and is actually occupied by the subterranean Varnassi Hegemony. Though we’re not technically at war with them, many fear another incursion may be brewing.”

Incredible, dungeons aren’t at all what I expected them to be like. They sound just as handicapped as me, but that shouldn’t have stopped them from achieving greatness… That there’s a contiguous hostile nation underneath the Lyrian Empire is sort of blowing my mind right now. It’s just so bizarre and alien that I’m seriously having trouble even wrapping my head around the concept. Like sure, it’s easy to say “there’s a subterranean nation” but the realistic implications are profound. For there to be enough space underground to house an entire nation, (and likely not just one) the cave system would have to be massive. And wouldn’t that place it below sea-level too? I couldn’t fathom how such a cave system could form via mundane processes; magic is surely involved.

One bit of good news is that people don’t seem too keen on destroying dungeons, but I should make sure before jumping to conclusions. “What happens when a new dungeon is discovered?” I asked.

“Well typically the beasts are culled, and the core is restrained by a group of mages. It’s important to restrain a dungeon because it might create hidden areas where beasts can breed, however, sometimes it’s useful to leave one to its own devices, say if you wanted the dungeon to expand,” said Weston.

Huh, they’re called mages, not wizards. Rookie mistake. At least “mage” rolls off the tongue a little easier.

I really can’t let that happen. While I’m glad that, by the sound of things, ‘dungeon crusades’ aren’t a thing, hearing about core restraining is worrisome. While I could possibly prove that I’m ‘tame’ and restraining me would be unnecessary, I fear that I’d lose some of my freedoms. No, at this stage, the best path forward is to remain hidden while I amass knowledge and power. I’d be much more comfortable if I was able to protect myself. Magic will be both my salvation and undoing. As long as I’m behind in knowledge, I’m at risk from unforeseen tactics. If I can learn about magic, not only will I know what to expect and plan accordingly, I can probably even find novel uses for it.

Who says a dungeon core can’t become a mage?

There’s a hole in my plans with Weston, if I deliver the ember blossoms now, Clifford will surely notice them. While I could possibly execute the deal in secret, I just don’t think it’s sustainable. I’m not clever when it comes to social interaction so I think I should try to remain as transparent as the situation allows. It shouldn’t be too much trouble if Weston doesn’t keep our correspondence a secret, he doesn’t really have enough information to actually do me any harm. Even so, I can’t help but feel I’m making a mistake by putting myself out there like this, but I really do need to secure connections with the outside world. If I could absorb and create matter, things might’ve been different…

I wonder what it’s like being a dungeon 4 km beneath the surface. I suppose I’ve got some exploration to do…

Before I shift my focus back to working on my dungeon and pondering a recent discovery, I’d like to spy on Wes for a bit and see what he does with the information I’ve provided. My bet is that he’ll seek out Clifford for help; it’s inevitable really. Everyone needs a Clifford, they’re veritable fonts of knowledge.

I watch as Wes heads out the back of his carriage. After asking someone I don’t recognize a question, he trots over to a makeshift horse corral. Upon arrival, he meets Clifford.

“Are you off to check out the original destination?”

Striding over to Wes, Clifford confirms, “Yup, I just wanted to make sure the mana there isn’t any better than what we’ve got here, as I promised I’d do.” Lowering his voice, he adds, “I highly doubt it will be, but I’d also like to check and see how large this mana well truly is.”

Similarly quiet, Wes said, “I wanted to tell you about an interesting encounter I had just now, I think you should know about it before departing.”

Making sure he had Clifford’s attention, I hear Weston continue, “This morning I met the person who’d given me the ember blossom. He came to me offering to sell more ember blossoms, for a good price, too. He also wanted my help in procuring books on magic, politics, geography, and history, as well as metal, cheap wands, and a map.” Pausing dramatically, he finishes, “And he did all of this via inborn telepathy. I need your help in making sense of this, oh, and before you ask, I’ve already accepted the deal.”

Scratching his bare chin, Clifford said, “I can think of several races with innate telepathy, but none other than forest dragons live nearby. Actually, it would make sense if your benefactor was a civilized forest dragon. Perhaps he was living reclusively in the area until this portion of Merival Wood burned down and is now interested in reconnecting with civilization. That could easily explain the books. As for the metal, he probably just wants to fuse it to his hide, which is pretty standard for a forest dragon. The wands though? I can’t see how he’d even wield those at his size, but dragons are known to be eccentric… Maybe-”

Vigorously shaking his head, Weston cuts Clifford off, “Nope, this was no forest dragon. You might know this since it's not exactly a secret, but the founder of the Watergarde Merchant’s Company is a civilized dragon, one whom I’ve had the opportunity of conversing with. A dragon’s telepathy is alien, I would’ve been able to tell if it was one. This man, named Ike, actually, sounded human. Really, he seemed like a nice guy, but as far as I know there aren’t any humans who can communicate telepathically without the aid of external runes, much less innately.”

“That rules out many possibilities, but it’s still possible that he’s a member of another telepathic human-like race. Actually, he might be a grynn, they’ve recently been spotted in Lyria, as one of the many races currently under the thumb of the Varnassi Hegemony, it’s not too unlikely that he lives nearby. They’re honorable folks so you should have nothing to worry about. Maybe ask him where he hails from next time you speak?” Suggested Clifford.

“That’s doable. Anyway, you’d better head off now if you’re to make it back before sundown. Thanks for your input,” said Wes.

They exchanged some small pleasantries and then Clifford mounted a horse and rode away. Rather than continuing to focus on Wes, I’ve decided it’s time to analyze my latest discovery.

You wouldn’t know, or you would, because you’re me, but this morning I saw something spectacular in my disk room. I was following a baby yellow lizard around when all of a sudden, a projectile rocketed towards the reptile and impaled it. The infant was instantly paralyzed, giving away the presence of a potent paralytic venom. The lizard was then reeled in by a proboscis attached to the harpoon embedded in its body. The harpoon was launched by an archer pod, and a tiny one at that. As the lizard’s paralyzed body neared its attackers glowing bulbous purple body, the archer pod began to unfurl a thin mantle which it used to slowly envelope the paralyzed baby lizard.

Now I see where it gets its name. Also, I can now speculate that it is a distant relative of the Cone Snail, a predatory marine gastropod who hunts in a near identical manner. Unlike its kin that I’m familiar with, the archer pod is shell-less, arcanasynthetic, bioluminescent, sessile, terrestrial, and capable of breeding via budding. It’s possible that its bioluminescence serves as a lure for prey. What has me so giddy is that the one I’d witnessed was just an infant, I had many much larger specimens in my dungeon already.

If these things are animals, I suspect I have some degree of control over them. Testing my theory, I locate a 15-centimeter-wide individual and will it to fire its deadly package into the air. I’m pleased to see it was a total success, the barbed harpoon flashes out of the archer pod and, not encountering anything except empty space, bounces back, whereupon it’s gradually reeled back in. It’s good to see that the proboscis is somewhat elastic.

Now, assuming these secret snails have venom comparable to that of a normal cone snail, which is a fairly safe assumption, then these creatures are lethal. Incredibly so, the largest cone snails on Earth were 26 cm long and venomous enough to easily kill an adult human.

As it turns out, I do have a way of defending myself from sapient attackers…

Now if I was a human invading a hostile dungeon, I’d destroy any archer pods in sight. And for the average dungeon, (Probably, I’m really just stroking my own ego here.) that’d be that. But I can do so much better. I immediately set to work carving several recesses into the walls, ceilings, and floors of my home, especially in proximity to my core’s hiding place. In each recess I plant an archer pod. I then proceed to cover up each pod-containing cavity with a thin stone slab pocked with holes for gas-exchange, after all, animals need to breath. If a malicious person infiltrates my dungeon, I’ll be able to telekinetically pop off the slabs to initiate a deadly surprise attack.

Once finished, I observe my handiwork.

I’ve made a grave error. Easily visible through the ventilation gaps in each of the stone covers is the characteristic purple light of an archer pod. As it stands, this won’t be surprising anybody. Perhaps it’s time to flex my creature modification ability once more?

Finding a choice pod to remove the bioluminescence trait from, I begin the process. Altering my dungeon’s denizens is not an easy task. (Well, it’s worlds easier than genetic modification, but I digress.) It takes me nearly 5 hours to establish the framework for the change, though doing so gives me an intimate understanding of the organism’s biology, rendering dissection unnecessary. Once I’m satisfied, I initiate the process and notice my mana draining away. With my large disk room completed and the two new rooms partially finished, I’m easily able to tank the mana expenditure and complete the modification in a single iteration. Once finished, I replant the pod in a fertile location so it can propagate faster.

As I was modifying the archer pod, I was struck with a brilliant idea.

Mounted pods.

The largest mobile animals in my domain that I also had in abundance (Thus excluding the squirrels, birds, and lizards which had yet to establish sizeable populations.) were goliath beetles. Coming in at 10 cm at the largest, nearly the size of my dungeon helpers, these insects were truly massive. A goliath beetle is heavily armored, with black and white stripes on its head and thorax and rustic red elytra.

With the beetle being naturally large and thus already partially adapted to the tyranny of the square-cube law, it’s currently my best option for carrying archer pods. In fact, doubling their size is all I really need for them to effortlessly haul a pod, if I made them any larger, they’d just take longer to mature without providing any additional benefit.

I select a healthy female and once more use my modification ability. When I have enough of these ranged units, I’ll be ready to assault the overgrown cavern below.