Years had passed since Nikolaos and his mom left their small dying village. Through thick and thin they found a way to get by every day and eventually after saving up enough money they settled down in a newly built town called Felschonheit, it was an odd little town, built as a test to see if a town built on a dungeon could thrive, not many were willing to move there but for fear their investment going to waste but the cost of buying land there was cheap as an incentive to get people to move into and populate the town.

Growing up Nikolaos had never known his dad, apparently his dad had died before he was old enough to remember his face, he didn’t ask his mom much since every time he did his mom would get really sad, but he didn’t let the fact that he didn’t know his dad upset him nor did he really have the time to get upset about it.

His days were routine, consisting of helping his mom with sewing and the like usually small things like bringing clothes that needed to be repaired, picking up supplies she needed from the local shop, or repairing small things like socks in the like, that is until his mom kicked him out of the house insisting that a young boy like him needed to get out a bit more.

Walking through the town he tried to take the quieter side paths to avoid the shouting and crowds of people that plagued the main streets, taking extra precaution to stay away from the various ally ways that littered the town, never know what creep might be lurking in the shadows. Arriving at the local pub where he and the local kids often visited, he nor the other kids were there to drink off course, they were here to see the adventurers that resided there.

Adventurer an unfamiliar title to most, an old almost forgotten profession that was never popular or high sought after. But with the advent of these new more complex, resource-rich dungeons, Adventurers suddenly became high in demand.

Warriors and knights knew how to fight, adventurers, on the other hand, they weren’t as experienced in combat, but they knew how to explore and traverse, they knew how to avoid the hazards and traps that littered the dungeons most importantly they were survivalists easily able to survive days or maybe weeks in hostile dungeon environment. Were warriors and knights only survived in a dungeon environment adventurer’s thrived.

Most importantly adventurers were heroes that people looked up to especially to kids around Nikolaos’s age who whose whole world consisted of the town they were born in, the stories they told were truly a thing to behold whole new worlds that seem to only exist within the dungeon, exotic new creatures, horrible man-eating monsters and a whole slew of strange new things.

Many kids dreamed of becoming adventurers based on stories alone, a chance to experience these strange and wondrous things, being the first to explore a new frontier, slaying weird and deadly monsters, kids were practically foaming at the mouth for such a chance to break them out of their normal boring life.

But Nikolaos was different, more sensible for his age than others something he learned quickly traveling with his mother town to town before they settled down in Felschonheit, and also he couldn’t stand the thought of just up and leaving his mother like his dad did, but when given the chance he took the adventurers advice about surviving a dungeon they would give out in between their heroic stories of finding treasure or slaying beasts, they were interesting tidbits if nothing else.

On some days when the adventurers weren’t too tired or too drunk and with enough pestering, they would teach the enthusiastic kids how to use weapons, Nikolaos did take part in this not to become an adventurer but for the off chance, he would need to protect himself or his mother. With his mother teaching him how to hunt on nights when work wasn’t too tiring, He took to the blade pretty well, mingling hunting techniques he learned from his mother together with the sword techniques he learned to him from the adventurers.

When the sun started to set Nikolaos and the other kids would call it a day and head back to their respective homes. Walking through the now almost empty streets everything was a lot more peaceful, no merchants yelling about their wares or housewives loudly gossiping not caring who might be listening, this was how Nikolaos remembered this town back than when he and his mother had first moved in, silent and peaceful.

It was maybe a year ago that this town started picking up steam as a trade city, Nikolaos probably would have called the adventurers tales false, nothing but tall tales to impress kids and stroke their own egos if it were not for the things that came out of the dungeon.

Plants, Plants of all types came out from that dungeon, mountains upon mountains of new plants came out of that dungeon. New species of plants continuously appearing out of nowhere, and where new exotic things appear merchants, scholars, artists are sure to follow, soon the town turned into what it is now, a bustling trade town.

Arriving back at home Nikolaos quickly ate supper, then chose to practice sewing or practice hunting on the outskirts of the town if his mother was feeling well enough to take him. While practicing sewing his mother would give him tips and point out where he could be more efficient with sewing thread while also upping the quality of the clothing, when practicing hunting his mother took him to the forest just outside the town.

There the mother-son duo set out hunting rodo, furry rodent-like creatures, large ears, stumpy nub like tails with a lot of white fluffy fur, contrasting with the black fur adorning its main body, and small beady black eyes these creatures were nocturnal and preferred to live near human settlements picking up whatever food scraps they can to add to the food piles they keep in their den.

Rodo bodies where actually very tiny, about the size of an adult’s palm when fully grown, most of its size coming from its fluffy fur. So, they didn’t offer a lot of meat, but they made for great practice for any upcoming hunter, skittish by nature any hesitation or mistake could result in it running away, a small body hidden away testing a hunter’s observation abilities, and a fluffy exterior that was guaranteed that stop any half-hearted shots.

Nikolaos’s mother was usually the first one up to set an example, she was quick with her feet and hands, quietly moving into shooting range and knocking back an arrow. Then nothing, there was no sound she didn’t make a move after that, silently she waited and kept track of rodo as it pitter pattered around trying not to lose track of it, waiting for the right chance to strike.

The rodo went to the left than to the right surveying its surroundings for protentional predators that may be hungry. Not sensing its impending death, it lets its guard down for a moment to feast on a berry that it found deeming it not nutritious enough for it to add to its food hoard. Seeing her chance to strike Nikolaos’s mother let loose her arrow, the poor rodo ears twitched hearing the sound of the approaching arrow, but it was too late before it could react the arrow found it’s mark impaling the rodo in the torso rendering it on death's door unable to move.

Approaching the dying animal, she unsheathes her carving knife stabbing the rodo in the head killing it. She went around killing a few more in a similar fashion before Passing the bow and arrows over to Nikolaos as she proceeds to carve up the rodos for its fur and what little meat they have.

With bow and arrow now in hand went on with his hunting but to less success than his mother, only able to successfully hunt one rodo, each time he tried he would always make a small slip up, sometimes he would lose track of the rodo other times he would accidentally make to much noise alerting it, but with each failure he steadily improved, despite how easy Nikolaos mother made it look, Rodo were notorious as pests to hard for any untrained persona to kill and too much of a waste of time for anybody skilled.

When his mother finished carving the rodo’s it would be time to go home and go to bed, thus ending another usual day for Nikolaos.

If his days continued like this Nikolaos would have grown up into a fine a young man eventually taking over his mother’s shop gotten married, had kids, dying at a ripe old age surrounded by friends and loved ones.

If only.

On Nikolaos’s 13th birthday the unthinkable happened, an event that has been come to be known as the “flowering night” happened.

On that night people learned the true danger and terror a dungeon can wreak, no one really knew what happened that night in the dungeon expect that a party of adventurers went into the dungeon it hours before the incident occurred and whatever they did in there resulted in their deaths and caused this.

The earth quaked as the ground burst open and four giant towering trees emerged at the four corners of the town, each tall enough to cast a dreadful shadow over the town and wide enough that one could mistake any one of them as the leg of a giant, their roots rippling through the ground like torrent death threatening to devour anyone or anything in its path, tangling together as they collide creating a wall of bark that trapped the inhabitants of Felschonheit.

Many living on the outskirts were killed when the tide of roots emerged horses, people, houses it didn’t matter. If it was caught by the root it drained of its energy, leaving nothing but dried husks, feeding the trees.

With energy gathered the branches of the trees that clouded the sky began to grow buds that quickly bloomed into beautiful white blossoms, blindingly bright white blossoms dancing in the sky as they fall illuminated by the moon, lighting up the night sky.

Pollen seemed to be more abundant oxygen as it spewed from the maw of the dungeon, in minutes pollen blanketed the ground like snow and from that, as if time was sped up, they sprouted into fields beautiful flowers and gave rise repulsive chimeras made of plants, three bulbous heads reminiscent of flower buds gapping maws reminiscent pitcher plants, whip-like tails covered in thorns and sturdy bodies covered in bark.

They were sluggish in their movements, but their strength and endurance were monstrous, to say the least easily able to rend stone and deflect steel.

Nikolaos’s mother was one of the volunteers for the defense group that chose to fight against the oncoming hoard of monsters, the first wave stained the fields of flowers red, as the inhabitants of the town, former soldiers the town guard, mercenaries, and adventurers fought tooth and nail against the abominations that were quite literally sprouting from the ground itself.

The fight was brutal and people who were rendered unable to fight quickly piled up due to the disease that the that the plant chimeras spread, oaken flesh as it would be called happened when the fluid that spewed out of the creature's maw came in contact with a person’s wound.

Oaken flesh would slowly but surely turn the flesh of the afflicted into solid oak, a nightmare for anyone afflicted, not only were they fighting life and limb against abominations of nature they also ran the risk of becoming crippled for life if they got unlucky.

Thus, began the fight for survival, the defence team were quick to formulate a plan to combat these abominations, they went about setting barricades and explosives at key points throughout the town, the abominations threw themselves against the barricades slashing and ripping at it nearly tearing it asunder, this was where the explosives came in handy blowing up the abominations crowding around the barricades.

With the plant chimeras occupied at the barricades, the defense group used this chance to set fire to the beasts spawning grounds, burning the fields of flowers to cinders. With all that said and done the group managed to push the plant chimeras back, it was stressful, but the people managed to carve out a sense of control amidst the confusion.

But that sense of control only lasted until dawn broke through the night sky heralding a change in the tide of battle. As the plant chimera’s bathed in the light of sun their sluggish movements became livelier, their bodies began to swell with energy getting bigger and larger their outer layer of bark barely able to contain the beasts body split and cracked.

This was when the true battle began, as it dawned on everyone present that these monsters were just waking up from their slumber and that morning was their true domain. The monster’s retaliation shook the hearts and minds of the defense group.

The monsters, invigorated by the light of the sun, moved with a speed and agility unimaginable for its size dodging the flames and arrows, its claws tore through swaths of people who were unlucky enough to be in front of the monster.

They pushed and pushed leaving fields of flowers in their wake, a mark of their influence on the land, and in a few minutes, the monster had taken back what they lost and more, pushing the group back to their last barricade.

On their last legs, behind them were civilians and injured. With no way to run and loved ones protect the defense group made their last stand piling up all the resource they could they waited for the monsters to come.

………….

…….

…..

Nothing absolutely nothing, the monsters didn’t come for them even the sound of their stomping had gone silent until a Rumbling broke the silence as the wall roots retreated into the earth leaving not a trace of their presence.

The brave few who volunteered to scout the area to make sure it safe found more mysteries than answers, the plant chimeras the ones that would undoubtedly plague the resident’s nightmares were found, not moving, turned into trees their outlines barely recognizable amongst the trunk and roots that seemed to consume them.

The four towering trees that once at absorbed human flesh was still present, now drizzling down soft pink petals on the land. The fields of flowers that marked the plant chimeras influence on the land were now blowing gently in the breeze, mysteriously the blood stained them previously were nowhere to be found.

And at the entrance of the dungeon was found a small sign with one word written on it, “Sorry”.