The three walruses stirred with the dawn, the night had been short but sufficient for Ava, Madison and Tyler. The made sure they had their water breathing and dark vision enchantments active before slipping off the ice sheet.

They swam down and once under the ice sheet they continued to descend and headed even further south. Barely stopping to snack on some passing fish they continued until at long last the seafloor came into “sight”, or at least into range of their darkvision enchantment.

They found a hollow and rested before checking the direction of the core they were seeking and continuing on their journey.

Finally at the beginning of the third day of their odyssey they slowed and spread out. It was Ava who found the dungeon, the core. They gathered round the blue gem that sat in the centre of a domain about a meter across. They easily destroyed the dungeon’s sole defender a slightly evolved anglerfish. It looked even uglier than its normal brethren.

They contacted Mary for instructions as none of them had expected to find a core that was so profoundly inert. So near extinction.

Mary looked through Madison’s eyes and sighed. She was tempted to get Tyler and the girls to leave. The only reason she hesitated was that the three had persevered and been unfailing in their efforts to serve her.

« Please touch it Madison. »

Madison reached out a flipper and touched the core. Mary reached out and forced a connection, gaining a measure of control. She fed the core a small amount of manna and made it absorb its domain.

« Now pick it up and return to the surface. Make your way to one of my portals and come home. Before you enter Mock Turtle make sure you activate the new enchanted earrings I’ve developed based on something I created for Tarifax. It will allow you to control the temperature of the air within a centimetre of your bodies. It’ll allow you to remain cold, err, cool. »

* * * EARTH – FROG * * *

Frog concentrated and then grumbled to himself. ‘Well Mary did warn me this might happen, but I had hoped for a little more time.’

Angel hovered over the large pulsing Tiger Eye gem that presided over the root filled cavern under their small patch of wilderness. The Oak Maiden stood in a corner draped in the roots of her oak tree. Her green inhuman eyes glittered in her angular brown skinned face. Her light brown hair was liberally adorned with green leaves. They both watched with interest as Frog gathered his will and slowly formed his first avatar.

During one of the pauses, after Frog had dismissed his second attempt. Angel asked, “Why are you doing it this way Frog? Why don’t you just choose from the dungeon interface menu?”

« Because Angel, I, we checked out the abilities and limitations of a standard unmodified avatar and they are not as flexible as Mary’s version. Harder to damage and safer in my, our dungeon’s domain but very limited outside, and then Mary gave us the template for that recall gate thingie. »

Then, once again the Avatar started to form on the couch in the middle of the cavern. Apparently the third try was the charm and Frog’s inner mental picture of himself rushed to completion. There was a ting and Frog felt his core update itself. He also felt his other self disengage his attention as their merge ended. He knew that they both now had access to their new avatar.

Frog sighed with satisfaction as he watched Angel hover over his new body, currently untenanted. ‘Just one more thing to do,’ he thought tiredly. ‘Then I can rest.’

Slowly a necklace manifested around his neck, and hanging from it a crystal globe that seemed to contain the image of an oak tree.

The Oak Maiden smiled revealing a set of pointed teeth. “Nice,” she remarked. “Now you’ll need guards.”

Frog settled himself into his new body and practiced switching his perception between it and his core for a while before falling asleep.

= = O = =

Olivier Broussette leaned against his old Ford as he examined the sight of the blight that wasn’t with narrowed eyes. He had tried several of the new abilities he had gained since he had chosen to become a shaman six months previously. He could sense some powerful spirit had made its home in the young oak he could barely see through all the verdant growth. The Blight was gone from this patch of ground and he wanted, no needed to find out how it had been achieved.

He would have tried to find the ones who lived here if it wasn’t for the glowing sign he had been able to see from the moment he had tried to evaluate the Oak.

{ You have found a dungeon: The Arena of Blood }

The System had a lot of vague information regarding Dungeons, and most of it was not very reassuring. Nor was the addendum, ‘dungeons on Earth may differ from those on other worlds’.

* * * EARTH – JAKE * * *

Jake grinned at his buddies. They were wedged round a table in the local MacDonald’s. The bounty those media creeps had paid them for the Alligators had been sweet

“So ‘Alligator’ what’s next?” asked Carlito to snickers.

Jake lost his smile, “Stop it with the ‘Alligator’ tag bro, I’m just Jake. Those stupid media creeps thought that one up all on their own. Next time I’ll maybe call them Whitey or worse.”

“Hey calm down Bro. I thought you hated that Whitey crap?”

“I do, but some of those smarmy creeps deserve it,” scowled Jake.

“So Jake, what’s next? We found a dungeon man, a real honest to god fantasy type dungeon right here under New York. It’s even got a name, Alligator Haven.”

Jake scowled again, “And the next one who calls me Alligator is gonna get a punch inna mouth.” Then he grinned again, “Yeah, that’s so cool. I figure we’re going to found the Adventurer’s Guild just like in the role playing games and books.”

The friends looked round at each other and high fived.

“Way to go man, then we’ll all be official adventurers,” chortled Carlito.

* * * EARTH – MARY * * *

Commander Meadows was sitting in one of the fighting chairs at the stern of the Storm Dolphin watching the coastguard cutters idling off to starboard. To port the USS Ocean Pride was currently offloading a minisub.

Joanne, Art and Tod were already in the ocean, as was Mary and one of the leopard girls. Meadows looked back over his shoulder to check on the other leopard girl. She was seated in the command chair on the bridge, and he was convinced she was pouting.

He almost missed the moment they all dove, the move was smooth and they swiftly dwindled into the depths. The minisub looked clumsy by comparison and the scuba geared escorts just looked clumsy. Meadows grinned to himself when he saw the look of frustration on the face of Commander Farris who was standing on the deck of the idling coast guard cutter.

Under the waves Mary arrowed down into the depths, she remained in touch with a couple of her unseen escort. When she reached the only one of her plantations that she planned to share with the authorities she indicated the slender trunks of her greatly modified version of Tarifax’s liftwood trees as they spread sideways along the sea floor. The plants spread out along the sea floor in a complicated tangle, leafy branches growing from the horizontal trunks and reaching for the surface.

She could imagine the mass frustration of the biologists in their minisub as they saw the plants and realized that they were so handicapped when it came to studying them. Mary floated to one side with Tessa at her shoulder. Further back lost in the gloom two of her sea serpents awaited her call.

‘’K then, I’ll give you lot this little plantation, I’ll even tell you ’bout their life cycle and when they’ll produce seeds an’ what to do not to let those seeds escape but I’ll bet everyone’ll know this location within the month. I’ll lay odds only one or two of these plants ’ll survive the year out. The biologists ’ll ask for samples an’ that’ll kill several. Then the tourist an’ outraged luddites an’ anti genetics fruitcakes ’ll crash the party. An’ get all indignant at me for plain’ god.’ Mary giggled.

Then Mary touched Tod’s arm and pointed up. She headed for the surface followed by Tessa and her sea serpents. As she approached the surface she accelerated and was able to come halfway out of the water facilitating her boarding of the Storm Dolphin. Tessa emulated her while her detail used more traditional methods return on board.

Mary dropped into the other fighting chair and grinned as she strapped herself in and prepared her rod. “Think I’ll leave ’em to it Simon. The plants are in US waters an’ nobody owns this so you might as well let ’em all know they’re welcome to the liftwood plants. It’s their problem now.”

Tesssa shook herself partially dry. “The enchantment worked a treat Mary. Can I keep it?”

Mary grinned, she tossed a ring to Tessa even as she urged one of her serpents to show itself. “Yes do, and give that to your sister. I might need you underwater at some point.”

As Meadows watched his team climb aboard, his attention was diverted by the gigantic snake’s head that broke the surface behind them and rose a good three meters above the surface of the ocean, before curving and dropping back into the sea. The ring of the sea serpent’s body continued above the waves for a long moment before finally vanishing.

Meadows was still staring when the Storm Dolphin started to move and Mary returned her attention to her rod.

* * * EARTH – IN THE NEWS * * *

Showing a film of strange looking jellyfish sailing past a large blue pyramid.

Scientists monitoring the oil spill caused by the sinking of the tanker Bertrand near Galveston have observed a new species of jellyfish. These creatures seem to have been attracted by the spill and were observed absorbing it.

The creatures apparently metabolise the crude oil and when sated inflate and take to the air like hydrogen filled balloons.

A few specimens have been captured for study.

Be careful of these creatures, their stinging tentacles are long, typically in the order of three meters and can deliver a nasty sting.

* * *

And in Redmond, Washington there have been more sightings of Zombies. The public is asked to not approach these unfortunates as though slow they are mindlessly aggressive.

While it is not known how zombies are created, it has been established that in all cases so far the people in question had died and been declared dead before becoming zombies.

* * *

Jacob “Alligator” Hennessy has confirmed that the alligator found in the sewers of New York is not unique. Our crew tracked him and his crew down last week when they emerged from their latest exploration with the bodies of two of the sewer alligators.

* * *

Is this the fabled Sea Serpent of legend? Our camera crew caught a glimpse of this creature at an undisclosed location near Hawaii. Although it looks like a snake, it isn’t. Gills are plainly visible behind it’s head.

The film loops a few times while “experts” blather on stating “facts” that they are unable to verify. The film shows a streamlined powerboat with two people sitting on chairs in the rear one looking back over her shoulder at the pilot while three others clamber aboard. The boat goes blurred as the camera focuses on a gigantic snakelike head that rises up from the ocean and drops down again leaving a loop that slowly sinks for about a minute before vanishing.