“I think you are going to be really good at making traps based on how your core pillar looks." Blixie said excitedly trying to cheer Garrett up. "Making traps is pretty much just taking the dirt and other elements under your control and molding them into dangerous and intricate shapes to maim and kill the things that come into your dungeon." Blixie said as if repeating it out of a textbook.

Garrett sighed. "I already told you I don't want to maim and kill the people that come in."

"It won't just be people that enter your dungeon Garrett." Blixie huffed. "There will also be animals and the occasional monster that wander in, at least until you become strong enough for the adventurers guild to notice and start building a town around your entrance. what about them?"

Images flanged through Garrett's mind. People running in fear from small green creatures with big heads and sharp teeth. Giants walking through villages and stepping on houses. People being killed indiscriminately. Fires raging in the aftermath and children crying for the parent lying dead in front of them. "Do monsters attack people and villages outside of dungeons?" Garrett asked hesitantly.

"Yes." Blixie stated. She didn't want to scare Garrett but she knew he would need to relearn what kind of world this was. "There are monsters that roam outside of dungeons. That can be very dangerous for common folk but adventures are usually pretty good about keeping their numbers down and protecting villages."

"Is there anything I can do besides wait for monsters to wander into my dungeon to help out the humans that would build a town near us?" Garrett sounded a bit more hopeful that there is a way for him to get stronger without killing people.

"There is." Blixie was happy that Garrett was sounding a little less sad about his situation. "When you get strong enough you can learn to make wards that will keep out some wild monsters. The rest of them would need to be handled by the adventures. So by you becoming stronger and having your monsters fight the adventurers the adventurers in turn become stronger allowing them to protect the people outside of your dungeon."

"Could I just have the monsters stand there and let the adventures kill them for the experience? That seems like it would be a lot faster."

"Unfortunately no. Adventures only get stronger by pushing their skills and minds to the limit. You can't get stronger if all you do is the easy things. Besides if all the monsters do is stand there and no one dies inside your dungeon you won't get experience and become stronger."

"That makes sense I guess. So let's focus on me getting strong enough to get a town built around is so we can stay helping people."

"That's the spirit Garrett. Now I know you have been infusing the stone inside your influence that you can see but have you been infusing all the stone within your influence?"

"Yes and no." Garrett quickly looked through his influence to check in on the mana inside the stone around him. "It looks like the mana is only going a few inches deep."

"That's no good. Nothing is going to die from a two inch deep pit tap. Remember mana travels through differently depending on what it is going into. Earth is very stubborn so you have to force your mana to where you want it to go. I want you to just focus on infusing all the stone within your influence."

Garrett focused on the earth around him and started to work, losing himself in it. Several days later Garrett infused the last of the stone he could reach with his mana. There was a lot of stone in the floor for him to infuse, some in the walls he had managed to reach, and even a little bit of ceiling.

"Hello?" Blixie said with a bit of worry in her voice. "Can you answer me Garrett?"

"Of course I can answer you. I just haven't heard you say anything for the last while."

"Oh thank goodness." Blixie mumbled."I've been trying to get your attention for almost two days now. You didn't talk. You didn't respond to me. It was like you had reverted back to being just a dungeon running on instinct."

"Sorry, I guess. I was just focusing on getting all the stone infused with my mana. Guess I lost track of time. I did get all the stone inside my influence infused though."

"It's fine. I'm just glad you are back to normal. So, how much of the room does your influence reach?"

Garrett focused for a second and looked at where his influence was. "Looks like it goes from this back wall and almost to the door."

"Great work Garrett. Let me tell you about traps now that you have enough room and material to work with. Traps come in a limitless variety. From simple ones like a hole in the ground to more advanced ones like counterweighted ceilings, and those are only the ones using the earth element. Let's make a basic pit fall trap. Focus on the earth just in front of the door and absorb the earth down to about ten feet deep and make a hole a little wider than the door and just about as long."

Garrett did as asked and started absorbing the stone. After a few feet down he had to forcefully expand his influence, down to the depth and width that Blixie had asked for. Once he was done he had a sudden spark of inspiration. He angled the walls of the pit so the bottom was larger than the top so anything trying to climb out would be practically climbing upside down. He also formed some spikes on the bottom that were about six inches long. He finished up the pit by making a thin cover of stone over the top and smoothed it out to match the rest of the floor.

Blixie watched as Garrett worked to make the pit with a critical eye. It may be a basic trap but she was taught that you could tell a lot about a dungeons current skills and personality by the style of traps they make. When Garrett finished his pit a few hours later she was about to congratulate him and move onto some other types of traps, when Garrett started to modify the pit she had asked him to make. So she stayed quiet and waited to see how he would personalize it. When he added the sloped walls and spikes she was impressed by his forethought and creative thinking for a dungeon at his level. She was glad when Garrett put the cover over the pit. At least he isn't completely hopeless. She thought to herself.

"I added a few things I thought of when I was making the pit." Garrett told Blixie after he was satisfied with his work. "I hope that is okay." He finished meekly.

"Okay? It's great." Blixie praised him excitedly. "I am just here to guide you and answer your questions, not to tell you exactly how to build your dungeon. I'm excited to see the things you added. They are great ideas for a basic pit trap. Just wait until you have access to other elements. So I hope you can now understand how traps can have an almost unlimited amount of variety."

Garrett practically vibrated with excitement. "Shh!" Blixie suddenly whispered. "Do you hear that?"

Garrett strained to hear what Blixie was talking about. He soon heard a small squeaking sound coming from the hall that lead outside his room. "What is that sound?" Garrett said.

"Shh!" Blixie whispered harshly. "You don't want to scare it away." They waited for a few minutes, the only sound heard was the sound of the squeaking slowly getting louder. After a few minutes Garrett saw a rat the size of a medium dog poke its twitching nose into the room. "Come on. Just a bit more." Blixie whispered.

Garrett was transfixed by the treat as it poked its head in a little further, looking around for danger or food Garrett was unsure. The rat sniffed the ground where Garrett had placed his trap. It lifted its nose sniffing the air as it put a foot tentatively into the room. With a sudden squeak and hiss it turned its head toward Blixie and stared at her. Garrett became nervous that Blixie was about to be eaten and there was nothing he could do about it.

The rat lunged into the room with an unexpected speed easily clearing twelve feet and landing past the trap. Garrett became frantic and yelled at Blixie. "Run Blixie."

Blixie had learned about a lot of different monsters during her lessons and knew about the capabilities of the dire rat so she had been more prepared when it leapt. She readied herself for when the rat charged again. "Don't worry Garrett, it can't see you and since your core is not food you will be fine." The rat leapt again mouth wide to gobble up the small pixie. Blixie quickly flew to the side to avoid the rats bite laughing lightly. "Come on you overgrown flea bag." She taunted while wiggling her butt at the rat. "Come get a nice big snack."

"Why are you taunting it?" Garrett was shocked that Blixie wasn't scared of this thing. It looked like she was even enjoying it.

"I have an idea Garrett. Remember what I said about pixies being fighters? Just watch and learn." Blixie shot around the room narrowly avoiding becoming the rats next meal. The rat furiously jumped at the pixie over and over, hunger overriding any sense of logic it might have had.

By now Garrett had calmed down after seeing Blixie avoid the rats attacks for the last few minutes. He started to get curious about what Blixie had in mind for defeating the rat. His answer came soon enough when Blixie avoided a bite and flew over to the door. The rat leapt straight at Blixie and missed when she flew backwards with a big frown on her face. "Sorry flea bag but that was your last chance." The rat landed heavily on the ground and with a crackle the floor underneath it gave way. Blixie had gotten the rat to jump right into the middle of Garrett's trap. The rat gave out a frightened squeak as it plummeted into the pit and was impaled on the spikes below.

Garrett felt a rush of energy as the rat died and it's experience was funneled into him. Garrett now understood why other dungeons would kill to gain experience. The euphoria that spread through him was addictive. A soft chime emitted from his gem drew his attention from the consuming euphoria of gaining experience. "Did you hear that Blixie?" He asked.

"I certainly did." Blixie replied beaming with pride and excitement. "That sound means you leveled up. Go ahead and check your status."

Name: Garrett

Species: Dungeon

Level: 2 Exp: 100 Exp to next lvl: 400 Element:none 40/40 MP Unused skill points: 1 Boss Monsters : 0 Special abilities: Unseen Force Level 3, Earth Shaping Level 3 Monsters available: None

Garrett excitedly looked over his status. "I have more mana. That is going to be great for increasing my influence. Hey Blixie, what are skill points used for?" Garrett asked.

"When you level up you will get skill points that can used to acquire new skills. You can also get some skills by having someone teach you. Sometimes you can unlock skills by simply doing an action enough times."

"So if someone can learn a skill by just doing it then what is the point of the skill points?"

"Well, people usually don't spend points on the skills that are easy to learn but there are advanced skills that take years to acquire. Why spend years practicing to get a skill when spending a point on it instills the same knowledge."

"That sounds amazing, and kind of like cheating somehow."

"How is it cheating if that is just how the world has worked since the beginning. It's like saying that you are cheating by being a dungeon that doesn't have to eat to survive while almost every other living, and some undead, creatures have to."

Garrett thought about it for a minute. "I guess you have a point. So how do I spend them."

"We will get to that in a minute, but first we have the opportunity to get your first monster." Garrett quickly forgot about spending his skill point when he heard about getting his first monster. "Go ahead and absorb the rat just like you did with the boxes. You are going to want to do that to anything that dies in your dungeon. Not only will that allow you to get the mana patterns for them but it will keep your dungeon clean." Garret quickly flew over to the pit and absorbed the rat. He also fixed the cover of the trap and absorbed the blood covering the spikes while he was there.

When he finished Garrett visualized the rat that had just been killed. He became more and more excited as the image was filled with mana. It took more mana than either of the two seeds that he had created before. By the time the ethereal image of the rat had solidified he had spent half his mana. He knew that he was going to get a baby rat and it wouldn't be a threat to anything but he didn't care. It would be his first monster. There was plenty of time for it to grow before adventurers would come in, he hoped.

Garrett focused on a spot and summoned the rat. Nothing happened. He focused on the visualization of the rat and saw it floating in his vision looking like a solid rat ready to scamper across the floor. Again he focused on a spot on the floor and willed the rat to be summoned. Nothing.

"Are you going to create a rat or do I need to tell you how to create things again?" Blixie said slightly annoyed. She was excited to start having Garrett create monsters so they could really make a proper dungeon.

"I tried." Garrett said back angrily. "Twice. Why is it not working Blixie?" Garrett groaned.

Blixie stared at Garrett wide eyed. "You tried twice to create one? How did it not work?"

"That's what I want to know. I visualized it just fine, and it filled up with mana like the ones before, but when I focused on a spot to create it nothing happened."

"What the hell!?" Blixie yelled out.