Chapter 3: The First Human

A little after midnight but still before the first rays of dawn peaked over the horizon my first spawned rabbit came out of the den, followed by the second, the third, and it just kept going until forty white rabbits were all lined up outside the nest. For some reason they were all white instead of the brownish color of my contracted rabbits but it must be something to do with my dungeons influence on them.

As I was admiring my first set of rabbits I got a notice that caught my attention. Apparently the first of my monsters had reached level 5, one of the first requirements of getting a second floor. So off I went in search of my strongest monster. I found it right away it was pretty hard to miss. I mean how many people can overlook a pink rabbit?

Maybe it’s a type of camouflage skill, it doesn’t necessarily have to be pink. After a while I had confirmed it really was pink and not just changing its color. The rabbit it was apparently the original one I made the contract with was still a level 4 rabbit though which puzzled me so I tried to see its status.

Contracted Wild Rabbit

Classes: (Rabbit lv. 4) (Servant of Love lv. 1, Un)

***

Health 20/20

Stamina 130/130

Armor 3

Natural Armor 3

***

Mana 55/55

Spirit 94/94

· Strength 2

· Agility 23

· Dexterity 7

· Constitution 2

· Endurance 3

· Perception 19

· Intelligence 4

· Wisdom 3

· Charisma 12

Wow it has a lot of agility, perception too. Not much else though besides charisma. My bunny is definitely a glass cannon. Still this servant of love seems like kind of a priest class but it gives a bit to endurance and dexterity too. So, it is just a weird class, guess I should have assumed that everything in the dungeon ends up odd and not just the stuff I summon from the altar. I wonder how many classes a creature can have?

Every creature may have up to three classes.

Monsters typically have a racial class and two others. Most sentients and humanoid creatures lack a racial class and have the option to choose each of their classes themselves. However, they also have an armor penalty; each point of endurance only gives them ½ armor instead of 1.

Classes and skills come in various rarities.

Common> Uncommon> Rare> Epic> Mythic> Legendary>???

***

Classes can only change rarity when a rank up happens, the first of which occurs at level 10.

Classes typically stay the same rarity in a rank up.

Classes can only improve or regress in rarity by one grade in a rank up.

So that is something to consider, people can probably easily get a common class but if they do they stand a chance of never being able to attain a higher class. It was better to hold off and wait for an uncommon or rare class. With that in mind I ordered my monsters to only accept a second class if it was of uncommon or higher rarity.

In the end while it was my only creature with an uncommon class I left the rabbit alone. It was my strongest monster but there was no way it was gonna be my boss. Still by the end of the day I had accomplished my goal and leveled the red swan wyvern up to level 5. I might have helped it out a little by feeding it a dove and a rabbit or two, it also started a monopoly on my apples.

With the boss deal now settled I directed my mana downwards and started pushing. At first it was like I was trying to break through a rock wall but slowly I chipped it away and wore it down and with a surge my domain expanded to over double what it was.

Shit, I grabbed my metaphorical head in pain. There is just too much information, too many sensations, too much of everything. After a while I got used to it and was able to look around again. Now I knew why all the dungeons were controlled by AI’s. The first thing I noticed was the blue screen.

Dungeon Level 2

You have birthed your second floor and crossed the first of many milestones in dungeon growth. As a true dungeon you now have access to the local AI network through which you can communicate with other nearby dungeons and spiritual entities. You have also unlocked the help feature should any errors occur.

+10 Evolution Points

Finally, I can send out a help ticket to the devs. I’m not really complaining about being a dungeon. Besides the weird love connection, it’s really cool but eventually I’m going to want to be human again and there is the issue of what will happen if my core is destroyed.

The connection to the local AI network was a really interesting possibility to explore. Apparently, I can send and trade information with other nearby dungeons with it and also use it to contract a few of the spiritual entities for my dungeon.

However, a distinct nagging sensation in the back of my head, well metaphorical head, caught my attention. It was like when you know there was something that you were forgetting but couldn’t remember what it was. Looking to the front of my dungeon I saw what was bugging me. A human had just walked into my dungeon. I had been discovered.

Damn are you fucking kidding me? What the hell is this? What happened to giving everyone a fighting chance? The human if you could call this beast, this terror of a creature one had over 46 total levels spread across his three classes. He was a level 19 ranger, a level 15 guard, and a level 12 bow maker. Sure, bow maker was the only uncommon class but still, this guy could probably kill every monster blindfolded and with both hands tied behind his back.

Luckily after poking around in the first room which only held rabbits currently he left. Still he didn’t leave empty handed but with a lucky rabbit foot and a clump of my pink moss. The arrow he let loose literally exploded the poor white level 2 bunny when it hit it.

Still I’m not going down without a fight. Using my new cache of evolution points I forced one of my roses into a natural evolution, this time I used two instead of the normal one because I had apparently unlocked an uncommon evolution. Apparently, the new plant was called a rose creeper.

Rose creepers are a kind of semi sentient plant. The stems get longer, the thorns sharper, and the rose spreads out more. When anything comes near them the rose creeper will entangle them and slowly strangle them with its thorny vine like limbs. Now each room has one or two of them in it, no more rabbits eating my roses. Well admittedly with how high their intelligences are they still eat the normal roses and most are too stupid to avoid the rose creeper ending up as food for the hungry plants. Still there is a reason people use the expression breed like rabbits.

The best thing about the rose creepers though was I could still accelerate their growth with mana so I switched out my swan boss with one of these nasty buggers once I got it to level 8. Apparently, there were a lot of rules regarding bosses. A normal boss could never level or change. The only exceptions were when a boss has never been discovered like mine was or if it’s a named monster. Still a dungeon has to be very careful on which creatures it names for unless one is removed from a dungeon they can never change. No matter how powerful a dungeon gets they can only have five named monsters.

The old swan boss came down with me to the second floor where I’d hollowed an area out for it. I was starting to panic and wanted to quickly complete my second floor but it was going at a snail’s pace. I recon it will take me at least a week to finish the floor, my mana can only permeate the stone so fast. On the first floor the mana had seeped into the stone long before I arrived but here I was starting from scratch.

In the end I created another rabbit orgy and set the doves to breeding. Much as I loathed to admit it, hopefully I would unlock another one of those damn pink rabbits. Besides that, I set aside a portion of my mana to nurture the rose creepers and started focusing back on growing. Only another human excursion into my dungeon could distract me from getting bigger. I just hope these humans are a friendly bunch and not the kind who likes to destroy dungeon cores or turn them into magical equipment.

***

Little Stream Town Guard Hall:

Captain Clifton’s POV

Looking up I sighed as I saw Billy hovering in front of my desk. Is it too much to ask for a little peace and quiet once in a while? What is it this time the Crawfords and the Greenfingers get in another row over some ancient perceived slight that goes back hundreds of years.

“What is it Billy.” The kid needed to develop a backbone always hovering and never saying what he needed. That’s fine in a small town like this but in battles a split second delay could mean more lives lost. Still that was pessimistic thinking of me no matter how much I might want one to occur some days to pull me from the mindless drudgery of petty disputes over farmland, a missing goat, or someone ranchers pregnant daughter.

Still there was a reason I moved here. After Clarissa died I swore off adventuring and moved out so Ashley could have a peaceful childhood. I smiled just thinking about what crazy antics my daughter had gotten into today. Then I snapped back to attention as I heard what Billy had to say.

“Sir Fletcher said he needed to speak to you. He said you would want to hear this from him.” My quite daydreaming was forgotten as I considered what could make Fletcher worried. The man was my best guard and an excellent ranger. If he had an uncommon class besides his bow maker class or lived in a bigger city he could become a great adventurer.

“Send Fletcher in Billy and next time don’t just stand around, if you have something important to say just say it.”

“Yes sir, right away Captain.” He hurried out the door running off without even hardly a glance where he was going. I sighed and got up to shut the door. When will he learn that it’s the little things that matter not just getting the job done.

Looking at him reminded me of what I was like at his age. Still a mere stable boy I had just gained the squire class after many an hour caring for the horses and ardently listening to every tale of adventure I could from the adventures who dropped off their horses at the stable when they came to the city. Still that seemed so long ago, I remember how me and Clarissa would always joke about going off on an adventure together. The tales of the stable hand turned knight and maid turned archer.

Around ten minutes after Billy raced off Fletcher came walking through the door. He wasn’t a tall man by any standards at 5’8” but there was something about him that set him apart from the average man living out in the countryside. His brown hair might help him blend in at times but you could see it in his gaze. Something almost bestial lurked behind the scruffy exterior of a farmer in his late twenties.

It also helped that he was no peasant. Fletcher was my highest level guard. He was a level 19 ranger, a level 15 guard, and a level 12 bow maker. Unlike most of the villagers who barely had one class over level 10 he had all three classes over.

“What did you have to report Fletcher? The boy said you had to give it to me personally.” I looked him over trying to guess what he had to say from his posture but like always it didn’t show much. Fletcher hardly ever showed anything that’s what made him so great at cards.

“There’s evidence of another dungeon towards the west.” Damn, we’ve already got the newly discovered goblin dungeon towards the north. I’m sure the craftsmen and the innkeeper will be happy but this just means more work for me. I moved out here because I didn’t want to deal with all the adventure bull shit.

“Are you sure it’s a dungeon and not just a monster lair?” That had happened before. A supposed dungeon ended up being the nest of a Flare Griffin. It’s fire mana had scorched and changed the surroundings but once it was driven away they had slowly gone back to normal.

“I’ve personally confirmed it, we have another dungeon on our hands.” Fuck what are the gods up to? We’ve already got at least two dungeons in the area and we’re in the middle of fucking nowhere. The Saxosus Kingdom is one of the farthest western kingdoms, it’s considered a hobo and goat fuckers kingdom not a proper land at all but here on the outskirts of it we’re still being affected by the gods games.

The last report I got from a friend in the central part of the continent said that dungeons were popping up everywhere and that the three central kingdoms had over 100 dungeons a piece in them. Apparently, the east is almost as bad, only the untamed west and the barren desolate south is let off from a majority of the dungeon boom. Still the worst news is the arrival of the travelers. Some say they were cursed by the gods to feel the pain of death but never die, others that they are the children of gods and mortal, or demons descended onto the earth. What I do know is that wherever they go they bring the flames of chaos, death, and destruction. I can only hope they don’t come here. Still enough of that it’s time to focus on the present not dwell on the countless what ifs.

“So, is it another goblin dungeon?” That was another worrisome issue had the goblins made some deal with the gods cause almost have of the new dungeons are rumored to be goblin dungeons.

“No, captain.”

“Well that’s a relief we’ll already have enough of them with the one dungeon. How about an undead those seem to be on the rise as well?” Which was even more troublesome. While undead dungeons were allowed many of the churches frowned upon them and actively seeked to eradicate them. It would be a bad idea to get between the churches and something they wanted.

“No captain I didn’t get a good look around but all I saw was a bunny rabbit.” As he said that he glanced to the side his face showing a concerned look for a second before disappearing as if it was never there. That was disturbing what could unnerve Fletcher, he almost never let anything show.

“What is it Fletcher? If you have any concerns just say them.”

“Sir it may be nothing but I found an unusual type of moss in the dungeon and the walls appeared to be glowing pink. Have you ever heard of a pink dungeon?” He pulled out a clump of pinkish moss from his pocket. A pink dungeon, I’d heard of dungeons with a reddish, orangish, bluish glow hell one even had a blackish glow as weird as that was but pink. Ignoring his question about the color cause he probably guessed my answer from the expression I just made I asked about the moss.

“Well how unusual is it? Is it poisonous or something?” I grabbed it and tried to see what was so odd about it sure it was pink but a dungeons color had a pervasive effect on everything inside it so finding pink moss inside a pink dungeon was pretty much common sense. Still he had the rangers observe skill and I didn’t. He could see part of a creature’s status with it and apparently plants too, he must have reached at least journeyman to be able to do that which was impressive.

“Sir do you remember that love cult we drove out a few years ago.” Oh god was that a nightmare. They came into town and started trying to spread their message to all the townspeople. Normally I would just ignore all those religious zealots like the plague but after they started walking around naked and fraternizing with the local monsters as the head of the guard I had to step in.

“Yah, I remember some of the men even got involved with it.” I smirked when I recalled how Jim’s experience in the cult had turned out. The man was a real player but wasn’t a beauty by any standards and he probably joined because of all the nightly orgies and weekly gatherings to share one knowledge of the Goddess as they called it. Still last, I heard the orgy got messed up by a drunk or something and they ended up calling a pack of trolls instead of a group of dryads. Jim still cringes whenever he sees a troll. I heard a bull troll did a number on him even gave him the Troll’s Bitch title.

“So, what does the dungeon have to do with those zealots?”

“Well that moss is apparently a mild form of aphrodisiac. Which is something a dungeon would rarely form, plus I’d never even heard of a pink dungeon before today. The location of it is somewhat concerning as well. You know we never found their camp and it was somewhere to the west of town.” I better go check on this. As much as I would like to ignore this I have a bad feeling about all this. I knew those guys were trouble as soon as they came into town.

“Well we better get on it. We don’t want them meddling with dungeons ever again. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Centaur Dungeon fiasco.” Fletcher nodded his face solemn. Now if ever there was a dungeon that could give one nightmares it was the centaur dungeon, worse even than an undead. Originally an animal dungeon that specialized in horse type monsters it somehow gained the blessing of the Goddess of Love and that’s when everything went to hell. Her blessing changed the dungeons aura into one that made a person constantly horny while their mind was altered into a baser state where only the most basic desires remained: the need to eat, the drive to grow stronger, and an unquenchable urge to reproduce.

Countless men still had nightmares from the day when the dungeon first changed. It was rumored that on that day the centaur race came into existence. I once knew a man who had a brother that was in the dungeon on the day of the change he said he was never the same after that.

“You’re coming sir.”

“Yes, also let’s keep this on the down low. Everyone is focused on the new goblin dungeon to the north and for now let’s keep it that way.”

“I’ll assemble a squad of rangers right away, we can bring the Storm God’s priest. He might only be good for predicting the weather but at least he should be able to tell of if there is anything linked to the divine in there. Gods can be picky when you mess with their things.”