So, I had a wonderful vision the other day for a game idea for The Slime Dungeon.

Imagine a game where you can create your own dungeon. You pick a starting race and terrain type and grow your first monsters. Automatic NPC's would then enter your dungeon in groups and attempt to fight their way down. In beautiful unreal 4 engine style, you -the protagonist spirit- could move universally through your dungeon in any direction and posses any monster to use to fight in real-time combat. As things die in your dungeon, you can expand and add new features to your dungeon, all the while with a meter below, like in Plague. Inc., that shows lethality, adventurer greed level, and growth rate. If your dungeon grow too hard and dangerous, adventurers would try to kill the dungeon. If the dungeon treasure become worthless, they would also try to kill the dungeon. There could also be a simple, retro 8-bit version of the game as well that would be simpler.

What do you guys think? I have no programming skills, or computer power (I checked), for this so it remains a far off dream.

Enjoy the chapter, and expect a second one tonight.

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"I don't want them, take them back." Steel tried to give his new pets away. Unfortunately, the two pets were marked "bound" in their character menus and the devil rabbits and regular rabbits had already left for their homes. Steel fumed for a moment as he suddenly found himself with two additional mouths to feed. The two were not even level 1 yet as they were both still babies.

Steel sighed and rubbed his head, calming himself down. He rationally figured that someone that dealt with pets and beasts would be in the city and would be able to remove the binding. After that, Steel could likely sell both pets for a good amount of silver or gold since they were both variant beasts. He shook his head and summoned the two animals out.

The wolf and rabbit both came out of his body in a stream of light and sat down on the forest floor staring up at him. The wolf pup had changed, now looking a few weeks old with it's eyes open rather than it's previous just born appearance. The rabbit also looked further grown, but neither had become adults yet. The two animals stared up at him with innocent eyes.

"I guess you both need names so I don't keep calling you rabbit and wolf." Steel muttered as he stared down at them with his arms folded across his chest, "Fine; you are Lobo the wolf and you are Akami the rabbit." Steel nodded in satisfaction.

The two gave him a look that suggested they realized he had just called them out in a different language. Lobo actually growled at him. Steel made a quick check, "My bad; how about Loba?" The wolf stopped growling and resumed staring at him, so he figured she approved.

However, before he could do anything else, the two began whining in hunger. Steel grimaced and covered his ears, "Okay, okay, okay, I'll make some food. Stop crying already." He took out the cooking skillbook and activated it. As it vanished into a shower of light, a notification popped up.

You have learned the skill: CookingDescription:You can make a meal out of ingrediants.Level:Beginner 3Effects:Improves chances of successfully creating a dish

-14% chance of ruining your dish

"Huh, I guess that farmer's wife was a good cook." Steel noted as his skill started at Beginner 3 rather than Beginner 1. He noted that the skill had started at 10% reduction, but improved to 14 due to the level up. Steel gathered some wood and set it aflame with his fire spell. Soon, a nice little bonfire was roaring away as Steel cooked some rat meat skewers over it. The smell made him, Loba, and Akami drool in anticipation, even if it was rat meat. When he finished, he ate the first skewer and relished the taste.

"I guess those rats must have fattened up in that barn, because they don't taste gamey at all." He marveled as he threw a skewer to each pet, "There is even some marbling in this, how interesting."

The three of them quickly ate threw his supply of rat meat, and Steel was reluctant to serve any rabbit or wolf meat to the two, not that he had a lot since he didn't get a good chance to gather.

Steel couldn't help but chuckle as he watched them pull the last skewer apart into two pieces and devour it. "You two sure are interesting. Tell you what, if you two ever bring back meat in the future, I'll cook it for you." Steel had said that jokingly, since they were still young and he wasn't going to keep them, but Loba and Akami stared at him with glittering eyes that suggested they were daydreaming. Steel, of course, did not notice this and thought about how interesting this adventure would be with the two animals.

"Well, until I sell them." He reminded himself. "No sense keeping anyone who will betray me in the future. Now, I just need to find those herbs and finish both quests."

Steel paused as an idea occurred to him. He took out green herb and bent down to show it to the two animals. "I need plants like this." He explained, "Bring some back and I'll cook for you."

The two pets sniffed the herb and disappeared in a flash. Steel checked the mini-map and found he could see both of them as moving dots on the map.

"They are really proving their worth." He muttered under his breath as he began to move toward the marked areas where the rare herbs were located. Unbeknownst to Steel, devil rabbits and demon wolves were actually fairly intelligent with much better senses than their normal kin. While he vaguely understood they were smarter than a normal animal, he didn't realize how close they were to human reasoning.

The closest area on the mini-map marked for red herbs wasn't too far from his current spot, so he walked towards it. After a few minutes of walking, he came across another large clearing in the forest. The clearing this time had no stream and was largely elevated as a hill. It was also covered in a variety of plant life, most of which did not have the tell-tale sparkle that indicated they could be picked.

Curious, Steel reached down and picked one of the normal looking plants; all it had for a name was "Weed". Evidently, not every plant was usable in Everlife, besides being used as a decoration or aesthetics appeal. Steel shrugged and threw the plant away as he began to comb the hill for the herbs he needed. The red herbs were very difficult to locate because they grew next to rocks, and there weren't that many rocks on the grassy hill. Even then, Steel had to carefully gather them so as to not ruin their quality. After an hour or so of work, he had only 2 red herbs of decent quality and 3 red herbs of poor quality. Steel was made because he now had 5 stalks, but only two were the right quality.

"Then again," He opened up the quest log and stared at it, "She didn't specify the quality, so maybe I could get away with this." Steel shook his head after he thought about it for a moment. He wasn't the type of guy to shirk on his duty to get it done faster; those who had bullied him had mostly been those types of people. He ground his teeth in anger as he considered being compared to them, an evil glow appearing for a moment in his left eye before disappearing.

"I'll find those damn red stalks if it's the last thing I do." He swore out as he hurriedly returned to searching the area. unfortunately, he failed to find anymore in the area and was left frustrated and annoyed. In his anger, Loba and Akami returned, holding a bundle of herbs in their mouths. They both spit the herbs out at Steel's feet before grimacing. Evidently, they both hated the taste of plants.

Steel nodded and began to absentmindedly store the herbs in his inventory. He casually inspected one before he fell backwards in shock. The green herbs well all of good quality, and to his mighty surprise there was a single yellow herb in Akami's pile. Even Steel's icy heart couldn't help but leap for joy at the sight of the yellow stalk, an existence so rare he could not have imagined finding it so easily.

"Akami, you get an extra meat skewer for this one." He said, rubbing the little rabbit's head. The rabbit shot a triumphant look at the wolf when Steel looked away. Loba looked glum before perking her ears up and sniffing the red herb at Steel's feet. She ran off and returned quickly with a single decent quality red herb.

Steel stared in shock.

"I've been looking for 3 hours for those, how did you find it so quickly?"

The wolf pup stared innocently up at Steel, than barked and wagged her tail. Steel pushed himself up and followed her down the hill to the forest. There, she led him to a large rock with another red herb sticking out from under it. Steel smacked his head in exasperation.

"Of course the hill isn't the only place to find it." He felt stupid as he realized his mistake, "They grow near rocks, so all I had to do was find rocks still within the set area." He shook his head to get over it and reached down to gather the second stalk. He managed to get it with decent quality, bringing his total up to 6 stalks.

"Okay, I think that's good enough for now." Steel announced a little later as he stowed away his fifth stalk of decent quality, "Let's go back to the city and finish up these quests." The two animals seemed to nod as they turned back into light and entered Steel's body.

The trek back to the city was easy and swift, with no random encounters occurring. Steel nodded to the two gate guards, who acknowledged his return with a nod, and walked to the mage tower.

When he arrived, he walked over to Marie's station without even pausing to check if she was available or not; she wasn't. Marie, who looked alert this time, but still bored, perked up at his approach and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Was the quest too hard for you; it's only been a day. I expected more from you." She scolded him as a notice popped up that his intimacy with her had fallen.

Steel rolled his eyes and dumped all the fangs on to her desk. "This enough for you?"

Quest Completed (Special)Learn Magic IIYou have successfully delivered all the fanges Maries asked for to her and even given her an extra demon wolf fang in record time. Marie had been suitably impressed.Reward:Intimacy with Marie has risen to Trusted

For returning in record time, Marie will teach you an extra spell

For delivering a demon wolf fang, Marie is ecstatic and will reward you

Steel raised an eyebrow at the ambiguous reward list and looked over at Marie. The receptionist was staring down at the pile in shock still, and then shakily removed the demon wolf fang with her hand. She cupped it as she stared at it, wide eyed in amazement.

"This, this is a demon wolf fang!" She said excitedly, "I never thought you would be able to get one; that means you got the pelt too!" She stared at him hungrily, "I'll pay you for all the pelts you took."

Steel had a small grin as he took out the rat pelts, the wolf pelts, and the demon wolf pelt and handed them over to Marie.

"You don't have any devil rabbit pelts?" Marie sounded a little disappointed.

Steel shook his head, "No."

Marie shrugged and happily stored the pelts and fangs under her desk. She gave Steel the first real smile he had ever seen on her face. He couldn't help but notice how pretty she looked when she wasn't frowning. "You've helped me more than you know young traveler." She told him, "Thanks to you, I'll be able to continue my research that was destroyed in an accident. Here, take these two spell books; but don't let anyone see you." She stealthily removed two spell books and passed them over to Steel, who put them in his inventory before he could see them . She winked at him, "If you want to help me again, return when you become stronger and I'll have another assignment for you. When you do, I'll have something for you as well."

She happily began to write on a piece of paper, indicating Steel had been dismissed. He got up and nodded to her before leaving the mage tower for Roxanne's Apothecary shop.

As usual, the shop was busy with players buying potions and herbs. Steel walked past the line and took out the leaf letter. The receptionist, a lady this time, nodded and allowed him to move past her into the back.

He found Roxanne working at her alchemy table; crushing herbs and mixing them into potions. The beautiful lady turned with a smile to look at him. "Good day young traveler, how my I help you?"

Steel took out the bundles of herbs, "I have returned with the herbs you requested of me my lady."

Roxanne nodded and beckoned for him to follow. She led back to the secret room, where her face changed from welcoming to a solemn happiness. "It is a good sign that you have returned so quickly. Come. allow me to inspect what you have brought back.

She carefully looked at each stalk of herb he had given her, separating them into piles of quality. She nodded her approval at the red herbs and clapped her hands happily at the yellow herb.

"I am rather surprised that you were able to acquire this yellow herb at decent quality; with your experience in gathering it should have been a poor stalk. Did you take this from another?" She asked him curiously. By her tone, it was apparent she wouldn't mind if he told her he had stolen it.

Steel shook his head, willing his two pets out, "No, these two helped me out with that."

Roxanne gave a gasp of surprise as she began to coo and pet the two little cubs, who obviously enjoyed her attentions. "How amazing to have both a devil rabbit and a demon wolf as pets." She complimented him.

"You want to buy them? I'm planning on selling them." Steel asked her.

The two cubs began to cry and quickly escaped Roxanne's hands to rub themselves against Steel's leg. They mew'd and cried as they looked up at him with puppy eyes. Steel was at a loss.

Roxanne, on the other hand, had a chuckle. "I do not believe they want to leave you." She observed, "In any case, it would highly benefit you to keep the both of them with you. Both are variant creatures with the potential to evolve, and both can acquire skills if you train them properly. Also, with your curse you will need help in battles; which these two can provide when they grow up."

"Anyway," She continued, "You have satisfied my request to completion, so I thank you."

Quest CompletedGather herbs IIYou have satisfied Roxanne's request and brought her the herbs she needed.Reward:10 silver

Intimacy with Roxanne has increased

5 stamina potions for bringing back the yellow herb

Exp has been acquired

Steel raised an eyebrow as Roxanne handed over the yellow potions, "Are the yellow herbs used to make these stamina potions?" He asked.

Roxanne nodded, "Yes, that is correct. Green and Red herbs can be used to make potions of healing while Blue and Yellow herbs can be used to make mana and stamina potions respectively. The cities where travelers appear only have a single variety of each type, so they are named by color. However, when you eventually leave this city you will find a great variety of herbs and plants in the world that cannot be simply called by color. However, the colors you learn here are rather universal, so eventually you'll be able to to identify a plant by the color of it's aura, smell, and appearance."

'So that's it.' Steel realized, 'In Everlife, each plant will somehow be related to one of these four colors, which will indicate what it can be used for. Even if there are thousands upon thousands of plants, just knowing what it can be an ingredient for makes sorting a lot easier.'

While Steel was thinking this, Roxanne stored away the herbs and returned to him.

"Young traveler, I see you are still weak and new to the world. You may keep bringing me herbs, but I will not give you a new request until you become stronger. I advise you to take some quests within the city to familiarize yourself with the residents."

Quest AddedExplore the CityRoxanne the apothecary has no need of you until you reach level 15. She had suggested you fulfill quests for the residents around the city to increase your fame. She has already spread word of you to her friends and business partners..Objective:Fulfill 10 requests for the citizens of RostwoodReward:Rewards from each quest, Fame within the city, and exp

You have acquired 50 fame

Steel sighed in acceptance; the road to vengeance appeared to be a long one.