Jake started siphoning. Unsure of how much mana he’d need for his rat monster, he decided to siphon two hundred mana. Four hours later, he’d done it and now it was time. He wasn’t quite sure how the skill worked, but since every other skill began with meditation, he decided that was the place to start.

He calmed himself, listened to Baxter’s breathing and then activated the skill, using his mana manipulation and his dungeon senses at the same time. Nothing happened until he started picturing the rat that he was trying to create. Black fur, pink tail, pink paws, black eyes. Then he started wondering about special abilities and he thought of stealth, of camouflage, of thicker, metallic fur to protect its body, metal nails and teeth to chew through wood and rock, of the ability to move from shadow to shadow at the blink of an eye. He figured that he couldn’t get it all. The portal ability sounded pretty over the top. And he had no idea how to do such a thing. It sounded great, but how do you teleport? He put it in his wish bucket. And the rat was already black, so what else could he do to make the rat harder to see? The metal nails and teeth seemed like they might be doable. He had a template for that already in Baxter. Well, at least he had an example of how he could do it. So he refined the image that he was trying to use, picturing the teeth and the claws glowing in the light the same way that Baxter’s were doing as he lay sleeping, trying to imagine them as metal.

Nothing seemed to be happening, so he pushed mana into the image in his mind. He felt something then. Something was happening. He could feel the mana coalescing, tracing the image, bringing matter into the world. He kept at it, pushing more and more mana into the image, feeling it becoming denser. The mana began rushing out of him, pulling at his center. 25 mana, 35, 45, 50, 60, 75, 100. He worried about his mana supply. He wasn’t sure what would happen if he didn’t have enough, but it wouldn’t be good.

Finally, with an almost physical reaction, as if spending the mana caused him to exercise some atrophied back muscles, the black rat came into existence. The rat crouched in the corner of the room, shivering, staring at the giant dog that was now awake and looking right at it.

“Baxter,” Jake started to shout, but it was too late. With a lithe twist of his body, a pounce, Baxter grabbed the rat by its head and bit down.

The rat vanished into a cloud of grey mana which Jake changed back to green, brown and black, before it drifted to the small tunnel’s mouth and vanished.

“Got it!" shouted Baxter. “Got rat!” Then looking around in puzzlement, at the ground in front of him which should have contained a dead rat, he asked, “Where rat? Jake eat? Baxter eat. Baxter hungry.”

Just then Jake got a notification.

Hah! Look at you go! Most dungeons start with what they know. Not you though. Jumping in and changing things all up even before you know what the hell you’re doing. Gotta admire that. Preferably from a distance. … just in case things get all explodey you know.

Skill Gained.

Pattern Modification

Elemental Sphere: All

Rank: Bronze

Level: 1

Range: Within dungeon bounds

Damage: na

Cool Down: na

Duration: Permanent

SP: 25 plue 25 per monster trait changed. Special abilities +.

Ability to change monsters and other life forms created from raw mana. New soul-patterns will be reusable.

“It’s Ok, Baxter,” Jake said. “That wasn’t a real rat. That was a monster I created.”

“Not real?” asked Baxter.

“Well, I created it and I guess it was alive, so it was real in that way, but since I created now, maybe not.”

“Real? Not real?” asked Baxter again.

“Don’t know boy,” Jake said. “Let’s go with ‘Dungeon Monster’, Ok?”

“Ok,” said Baxter. “Dungeon Monster.” He thought about it for a second and then asked, “Dungeon Monster?”

Jake knew Baxter was asking about himself. Was he a dungeon monster. “No Baxter,” Jake said. “You’re real. You’re as real as I am.”

Baxter seemed to be thinking about that statement, then smiled a doggy grin and said, “You real?”

Jake laughed. The dog could cut to the heart of things. He decided to go with some false positivity. “You bet, boy! I’m as real as things come. And so are you!”

“Good! Baxter real! Feel real,” said Baxter. “I dig” he said and started to leave for the tunnel.

“Baxter!” Jake called out. “I need you to promise me something.”

“Promise what?” asked Baxter.

“Stay away from humans. Ok?” said Jake.

“Why?” asked Baxter.

“Because you're big now,” said Jake. “You’d scare them and they might try to hurt you? Ok?”

“Monsters?” asked Baxter.

Jake wasn’t sure if Baxter meant ‘are humans monsters’ or ‘can I play with monsters’, so he answered them both.

“Humans are scared right now. Their world’s changed, things like you and I are in it now: Giant talking dogs and Dungeons. We need to let them settle down and get a little more comfortable with the changes, Ok? Plus you don’t look like you used to, boy. You could be pretty scary, Ok? As for monsters, you know best. If you can bring them back alive, you’re the best dog ever!”

“Good dog,” said Baxter, nodding his head. “Fetch monsters. Leave humans.”

“Thank you boy!” Jake said. “Have fun!” And with that Baxter left the room and started down the tunnel he’d dug to the surface.

“Shit!” Jake thought. “I hope he doesn’t kill my next rat!”

He started to figure out the mana cost of the black rat that he’d created. It had wound up costing him exactly 150 mana. He tried to figure out the mana cost, so next time he tried it, he could estimate a lot better. Not to mention, Bob’s explodey comment. Does every dungeon mistake wind up explodey? Maybe that's what happens to dungeons. They freak out at how dangerous their new life is and quit taking risks. Decide it’s better to live in your head, then to explode yourself. Something to think about. Now let’s see:

Basic giant rat, level 1: 25 Soul Pattern Modified Ability 25 Modified fur (black): 25 Modified teeth (metal): 25 Modified claws (metal) 25 Scout Skill 25

‘Shit,’ he thought. ‘This stuff burns through mana. Of course, I am creating life, so yeah, I guess it’s cheap, but still! So, now that I have a soul-pattern for it, I could re-make it easy.’ Somehow he knew that he had two soul-patterns now: one, the basic rat; and the second, the modified rat.

He thought that the new rat would cost him 75 mana to make. He figured that the fur was a freebie, but to be safe, he decided to siphon some more mana. He didn’t like Bob’s constant “explodey” comments. ‘Better safe than sorry,’ he thought.

Another couple of hours and he had 100 more mana points. Actually he had 165 with the leftover mana remaining from his boring and creating his first rat, so he thought he’d have plenty. He looked for Baxter and couldn’t sense him, so he thought it would be safe to create the rat.

He did the same process that he’d done before only this time focusing on the new Black Rat soul pattern. He formed the image and then started pushing mana into it. He wasn’t sure which skill he needed to focus on, either Dungeon Scout or Monster Creation. He decided on using the Dungeon Scout skill because that one would include the dungeon scout ability as part of his 25 mana cost. The Monster Creation skill would probably add it as a special ability. It turned out that he was right. The giant black rat formed in the same corner as before and he only wound up spending 75 mana points.

He could feel what the rat was feeling. The previous rat died before he could explore his connection with it. He could feel with its paws, smell, see, he had access to all the rat’s senses. Although at one level removed. He could pilot it, he has pretty sure.

He had the rat take a couple of steps forward, which it did. Or he could give it directions, like investigate the tunnel to the east, which it did. But there was no sense of belonging in the rat’s body. He was a passenger, maybe a driver, but not really. It was like a very good virtual reality game. Like in the novels, but one where you knew it was a game. One where you could still sense your own body or dungeon in his case.

He wondered if the rat could talk to him so he thought at it, ‘Hey rat, can you hear me?’ There was a sense of awareness from the rat, a basic attention given to his voice, but no attempt to talk back or any real awareness that the two of them were separate beings. It was like the rat interpreted his voice, his instructions somehow as originating from within. If he said attack, the rat would grow angry and attack, probably. But it would not think, ‘the voice says attack, I must attack.’

‘So, my monster’s don’t worship me, won’t talk to me, but will obey me,’ he thought. He thought it was a pity. Some of the dungeon novels he’d read had made it sound fun when the dungeons in the stories interacted with their dungeon monsters. ‘At least there’s Baxter,’ he thought.

He then told the rat to follow the tunnel to the surface and look around. It left and he followed it with one part of his attention. In the meanwhile, with another, he started to get back to Siphoning and Boring.

The rat took about a half an hour to get to the surface. Meanwhile Jake had bored out another nine sections of tunnel. And got another notification:

Don’t you just hate when your rats move so slow. It just makes you want to squish them, doesn’t it ...

Skill Level Gained

Excavation (Digging)

Rank: Bronze

Level 5

Choose:

Another meter3 of material removed Minus 5 mana to use skill

Once again, he said Option b, please and the notification closed and disappeared. He used the same reasoning, less mana meant more dirt removed. He wondered about that vaguely ominous message from Bob. ‘What the hell else can I do?’ he thought. ‘I’m digging as fast as I can!’

He checked his skill status sheet, it showed that his Boring skill was up to level 5 and that he currently spent 5 mana to remove a 1X4 meter3 section of dirt or rock. ‘Still Bronze though.,’ he thought ‘Whatever that meant’. He called up and glanced over his status sheet and saw something that he’d ignored.

Finally! Bob!

Name

??

Level

03

Race

Dungeon (Human Variant)

Available Points

9

Mana

310

Age

0 years.

Titles

None

Dungeon Points

10

Intelligence

15+

Wisdom

16+

Luck

17+

‘Available points? What the hell are those?’ he thought. About then he noticed the little plus signs next to his three attributes. ‘Oh, crap!’ he thought. ‘I’ve been leaving stat points on the table. I bet if I’d dumped those points in Intelligence or Wisdom, I’d have gained more Mana points. Shit! Shit!’

He thought about adding a single point to intelligence. Mentally clicking the little plus sign. His Intelligence rolled up to 16 and his potential mana changed to 320. He did it again and the number moved to 330. This time there was a little delay and it appeared that his mana started to be quite a bit lower and then shot up to its new level. He did the same thing to his Wisdom stat and there was the pause again and then it shot up to 350. It looked like at low levels there was some higher default setting for dungeons. I guess the Bobs figured we needed more mana at lower levels than others did? What others? Humans? Dogs? I wonder if Baxter needs his points assigned.

He finally decided to add another point to both Intelligence and Wisdom and to add the final three points to luck. He wasn’t sure who said it first, but his stepdad always used to say at family poker nights when he was raking in a big pot, “I’d rather be lucky, than good” which had left an impression on him. He missed his family then, briefly, but intensely.

The rat did the journey to the surface in typical rat fashion. Scurrying from safe hidey-hole to the next safe hidey-hole. Stopping, breathing, smelling, listening, and pooping, even tasting the walls, trying to bite them. Jake’s impression of the passage was fear from the rat, coupled with a blackness that the rat dealt with by using its whiskers to feel its way through, and a heavy smell of dogs and a slight odor of newly worked rock. When it finally reached the surface, it was dark in the room at the surface, not as dark as in the tunnel. Judging by the sound of the echoes of the room, the room seemed to be fairly large. In front of the rat was a large, black mass that it couldn’t make out. But inside the mass, it could hear others of its kind moving. Looking towards the right and past the black mass, the rat could see square, grey outlines which Jake took to be windows that had no or at least very little light behind them. ‘A dark night with no streetlights,’ he thought. But then he had to wonder, do streetlights even exist anymore?

The rat heard a growl and then a chomping sound, along with a shrill squeal that ended abruptly, come from the other side of the large black mass in front of him. “Baxter at work,” Jake thought. And then Jake sent the rat instructions to hide. He didn’t want to have to re-create the rat again. He made a mental note to figure out a way so that Baxter could recognize his monsters.

The rat moved to the rightmost corner of the room next to the windows and proceeded to bury itself in what looked to Jake like remnants of boards, tables, fast food packaging made out of strange materials and other, well, just junk. The rat somehow quietly created a nest and hid its body from view and then froze in place.

It was odd, but the rat didn’t seem unhappy. It was full, it didn’t thirst and it was in a location that it saw as safe. It seemed content to remain crouched there. Since it seemed happy with its position and Jake couldn’t see anything, he told the rat to stay there. In the meantime, Jake could sense Baxter again. He guessed that the rat acted as a range booster. He also thought that that might come in handy in the future.

“Baxter!” Jake said.

“Huh?” said Baxter. Well, that’s what it sounded like he said, to Jake.

“Baxter!” Jake said again.

“Jake?” asked Baxter. “Jake here?”

“No,” said Jake. “I created another rat. I can hear you. I guess it enables us to communicate. A range booster.”

“Ok,” said Baxter.

Jake wondered if Baxter understood that or just didn’t care. Either way was fine with him. “Don’t kill my rat, Ok?” said Jake.

“Ok,” said Baxter. “Where?”

“It’s on the Southeast side, hidden by the windows. It looks like the other rat you ate,” Jake said.

“Ok,” said Baxter. “Rat safe. From me.”

“Where's the humans?” asked Jake.

“Outside,” said Baxter. “North.”

“Ok, buddy. Be careful,” said Jake.

“Ok. Not see,” said Baxter and then jumped out the window on the south side and out of range again because Jake couldn’t sense him anymore.

Jake guessed that the ‘not see’ meant that the humans wouldn’t see him. He hoped that covered the other senses as well. And meant he wouldn’t be leaving giant paw prints or dead monsters around, but he figured he’d take his victories where he got them. And besides, nobody likes a micromanager. ‘Look at Wade?’ he thought. ‘Did anyone in the apartment like Wade? That’s not fair,’ he scolded himself. ‘Just because a man’s probably directly responsible for another man being in the wrong place in the wrong time to encounter a falling air conditioner doesn’t make him, well, actually it does. Screw Wade! I hope a giant rat eats him!’ he thought and then banished thoughts of Wade and his life in New York from his thoughts.