Tiny Dungeon

The first thing Valterra did was summon around fifty mice. He figured that would be a good test base and the mice didn’t take much Aether to create or maintain. He summoned them in rows and then held them there with his will. It was hard but the mice seemed to acknowledge his presence after a while and turned their attention to him. Projecting his thoughts to the arrayed mice he gave them their orders.

‘Loyal Dungeon Mice! You have been created with a purpose. You are to grow and evolve so that you might take your place in my Dungeon.’ He directed them to the turf war and released them, watching as they scurried to do his bidding. He chuckled internally. He had never given a speech like that before and he found he kind of liked it. His goal was to continually seed the territory outside his third floor with mice.

Lots of mice.

He figured that they would either evolve or be slain. He did not wish for them to die but wanted as many of them to evolve as possible. The Savage Mink had been a terrifying creature and the Tiny Dungeon wanted to be ready for any more invaders of the same caliber. He was sure they would come.

With that done he turned to his Dungeon. Sinking his senses into his Dungeon Body he tried to get a feel for just how large his spaces actually were. His first floor was twenty inches by forty inches and also contained his Core and Aether Column. His second floor had started as a little half-circle pocket barely ten inches in diameter set forty inches up the inner wall, with a little tunnel through the wood that led down to an entrance set at the bottom. Feeling the boundaries of the second floor, Valterra was surprised to find the floor had expanded by at least 20 inches upwards and sideways.

Tunnels had been carved into the wood, creating miniature highways that the Danians could use to get from one place to another. Interspersed between these highways were five floors that descended until reaching the entrance. Each floor had columns that held it up and workers who continued to dig and expand. The original alcove where he had placed the queen was still in use and contained each of the different stages of the Danian life cycle. There were eggs, pupae, and larvae as well as a few hatchlings that had just begun adult life.

The Danians fascinated him as he watched them industriously move about but also left him feeling a little bewildered. They had floors just like him but were almost done with five and were moving on to a sixth, just above the alcove. Valterra didn’t know how to feel as he watched the Danians build a more cohesive Dungeon than he had. Did he feel…impressed? Proud?

He figured it was both. After all the Danians were the first actual manipulation he had done on a Schema. That had been before his sentience but still. He would have to come up with a suitable reward for them. Maybe he should try and do what the Spirit of Conflict had done for his mice.

Yeah, that could work. He would craft an evolutionary tree for them. Excited Valterra turned away. He wouldn’t be able to do it yet since the rarity of Schema he could create only went as high as Uncommon but that would change once he had evolved.

That led Valterra to his next task. He wanted to make additional floors. Each floor had brought him closer to evolution and he figured he just needed to make more. To do that though, he needed space. Lots of space.

He could decide to make small floors. His Third Floor was only a half circle 25 inches in diameter if measured from the entrance to his Dungeon proper which was tiny compared to the 200-foot labyrinth of the Fourth Floor. He found that he didn’t much care for the idea. He wanted to create impressive areas with ecosystems like his Fourth Floor.

Valterra recognized that the Fourth was unique since he had created it primarily for his only Exotic Schema, which had been massive. His next rooms would not need to be that big but he was also blessed in the sense that he did not need to build something new when he could just claim something already built.

Using the vast amounts of Aether from the “ritual room”, as his memories called it, Valterra began happily claiming the entirety of the cabin. He started with the area directly outside the ritual room before moving into the “living room” and then into the “kitchen” from there.

In the middle of claiming the “kitchen,” he stumbled onto a patch of white cottony growths that was growing on a particularly damp section of the floor and wall. In fact, he claimed it so quickly he had partially moved on before the system brought it up, startling him.

New Schema Acquired!

Mold (No Rarity)

The bottom of the barrel of fungi, mold grows naturally in the wild but is also found growing in structures and buildings. Considered an infestation it is normally eradicated swiftly to prevent health problems. When disturbed mold releases spores which, if inhaled, can cause respiratory problems. If care is used when disposing of it then the risk of infection drops to almost zero. All in all this microorganism is rarely, if ever, a threat to most creatures and is content to consume dead matter to further its spread.

As the first Dungeon to use such a microorganism as a Dungeon Environment, you will be able to freely create and modify its Evolutionary Paths.

Warning! May have unforeseen consequences.

Valterra hummed in satisfaction. He had no idea what he could do with the fungi but he figured he would apply his mouse approach combined with his grass approach. He felt like it was fitting considering it wasn’t quite like a plant but clearly wasn’t an animal.

He finished claiming the kitchen before turning to his new Schema. He figured a little experimenting couldn’t hurt and decided to spice it up a bit. Diving into the Schema he quickly found that they were decomposers of dead matter, turning the decomposed material into food for itself. This was especially interesting to Valterra since it reminded him of himself and how he turned dead creatures into Schema and Aether. Now that he had claimed the Mold he could feel how it ate at the dead damp wood, slowly but surely turning it into fuel. That gave Valterra an idea.

He dove into the Schema eager to begin playing again, especially after his close brush with death. Like a child he moved on, shoving aside the trauma and anger at Trik’Weri in favor of his new toy. In the back of his mind though, the trauma lingered and a subconscious part of his mind held onto the rage that had begun to simmer.

He poked at the Schema for Mold shifting it this way and that. He knew he couldn’t change it a lot and still keep the Schema but he did have an idea. First, he changed the structure of the Mold to give it the ability to decompose more efficiently before also changing how it decomposed.

Instead of simply eating dead things and turning them into food, it would eat the dead things and whatever Aether remained inside before turning it into a Pseudo-Aetheric substance. It then would go through its normal process of fueling itself and the leftovers would be further converted into an Aether-like dew. Valterra figured the dew would attract prey that would then disturb the Mold causing its spores to spread. He increased the Mold’s capability for infection and then released his hold on the Schema.

New Evolutionary path synthesized from an existing Schema! The Schema “Mold” may now be automatically evolved into the following Schema:

Aether-Dew Mold (Variant - Common)

A fungus with new tricks. Evolved from mundane Mold, this fungus now boasts a trap made from the remnant Aether in dead material. Drawing prey in with this Aether-Dew, it sprays its target with spores that cause infection. If the prey dies the spores begin decomposing the body and the cycle begins again.

Valterra hummed again, pleased with his new creation. It certainly wasn’t the most powerful thing in his Dungeon but it would do as the backdrop for a floor at least. He began to spread it only to find a problem. His new Schema worked fine but it was decomposer, not a plant that could live with just Aether. He supposed he could change it again but he worried it would become a whole new species at that point.

He glanced around his dungeon. There were very few dead things in his territory since his Aether kept most things alive. Then again, the wood that was used in the making of the cabin was already dead when he claimed it and didn’t seem like it was coming back to life. He wondered if it would work and swiftly began spreading his new mold into various places in the kitchen to see what worked.

He found that the mold liked wet wood best in out-of-the-way places that didn’t see much sunlight. He spread his Mold into the places he found and left it at that. He would come back and try to figure out more places later.

From there Valterra moved on to claiming territory. He claimed the “porch” next and the outlying building, the “outhouse,” before moving up and claiming the roofs of both buildings. Pushing himself to go further he expanded to include the shadowed sections under the “porch” and the foundations of the cabin. It took him another day to claim everything which he was pleased with. It had taken him far longer to claim the basement and he could already feel his enhanced Boon and Title making their presence known.

He would have to sit down and go through the upgrades in more detail but for right now he was content to create his newest floor. He had to anyway. All the new territory he had claimed was drawing in even more Aether toward his Core. Valterra knew instinctively that he would have to either craft a larger Column or move to a larger room where the storm would be able to flow easier.

In fact, looking deeper into his instincts, he realized that while they had succeeded in pushing him to evolution they hadn’t been so concerned with the proper flows of Aether. Valterra felt how in comparison to his Third and First floors, his Second and Fourth floors didn’t receive near as much Aether as they should. His Fourth Floor especially should be receiving a much higher ratio considering its size and the size of the creatures in it. Valterra realized that he would need to change how he was going about building his floors and he was glad he had a ton of room to experiment.