Tiny Dungeon

Valterra was thinking deeply, with his presence situated above his pedestal. It had been a couple of hours since he had released the rats from their cages so that they could begin roaming. For once, he found himself without any ideas about where to go next. He had four floors now spread out around him. His fourth floor was massive in comparison to his other three but that didn’t surprise him much.

The first three had been created when he was all instinct and no forethought. His instincts didn’t know what planning was as was evident by the fact that those floors had little in the way of an ecosystem or various interacting parts. They were just a singular room with a guardian-type monster. His monsters didn’t even stay in their rooms most of the time, content to test their might against the creatures attempting to claim territory in the turf war.

He knew he was 40% of the way to his next evolution. He wondered what it would bring and what new Schemas he would have to choose from. But those thoughts could wait. What he wanted to do right now was explore. He had claimed a lot of territory under and outside the structure he was in but hadn’t explored the structure itself.

He had taken over the basement sure, but he hadn’t spent time exploring the world above. It was time to do so. Summoning his newest Schema he summoned three Hunting Pack-Mantises just outside his first floor. Each one stood roughly 7 to 8 inches tall with wickedly barbed forelimbs flexing and antennae twitching.

Satisfied, he tied them to himself via a line of Aether which his instincts told him was necessary if they were to remain under his control once they left his territory. It also would allow him to hijack their vision so that he could explore in real-time rather than just feel their emotions. With a mental command, one flew out of the Dungeons entrance while the other two flew within the structure, one following the wall in front of the first floor and the other one ducking around the corner behind the first and flying down that wall.

Valterra waited for a moment for them to leave the dungeon territory that made up his body and then began to peer through their vision. It was difficult at first, like trying to read three different system notifications at the same time but gradually he got the hang of it.

The first thing he learned, as his bug outside flew out from under the wooden structure above and then higher into the sky, was that this shelter or building was in the middle of a forest. Tall trees stretched their canopies out over a large clearing in which the building sat and the bug could sense danger emanating from the shadows of the trees.

Turning the bug back toward the building, Valterra finally got a good look at where he had been created. Rather than being tall and imposing like he thought it would be, the building was quite squat and spread out, sprawling all over the clearing. His memories gave him a hazy word, ‘A cabin?’ he thought. The structure seemed too big for the word but he shook off those thoughts and began to examine the “cabin” with interest.

The main building was rectangular with a wing jutting off to the left that connected to another rectangular section. The roofs of each building were conical shaped, overlapping where the wing met the main building. In the back was an entirely separate building, only connected to the main building by a long flat wooden structure that was raised a few feet above the ground.

This structure ran around the length of the buildings and looking at it from above, it seemed as though the owner had never wanted to touch the ground after leaving the house proper. He realized that this was what created the shadowed area of his third floor. Again his creator’s hazy memories provided a word for the structure.

‘A porch huh? What weird names for things. Tall folk are weird.’

Lost in his ruminations the Core failed to see the shadow that fell over the bug until his connection to it ceased utterly. His final view was of a sharp beak and a piercing cry. The loss hurt a little, Valterra was surprised to find. He hadn’t yet lost a creature to an outsider and he found the sensation unpleasant in the extreme. It wasn’t just the feeling of loss that shook him, akin to losing a part of himself. It was like someone had ripped out potential growth too.

That mantis would never evolve, never fight off intruders, or mate to produce offspring. Valterra simply sat for a while processing his first real sense of loss since becoming sentient. Even losing two of his Schema didn’t feel like this. Eventually, he pushed the feeling away. Like a child who had a bad scare but suddenly remembered there were toys to play with, he turned back toward the two bugs that were still alive.

Focusing on what they were seeing he saw that one had found a way to get into the building proper through a hole in the wall. It had to widen the hole significantly first but its powerful limbs seemed capable of the task. Once it was through it took to the air, flying straight up towards the ceiling to get a good view of the inside.

Valterra was thrilled at the thought of exploring this immense place but its size also filled him with a cautious terror. Something that needed space this big to live in would be huge in comparison to his tiny Core or even his new hunting bugs. He had brushed up against this realization when he claimed the basement but that had been largely empty and spacious.

This world above was cluttered with things, huge monstrous things. Some were carved from wood and some had huge stone slabs laid atop them. As he directed his insect closer he found that all manner of large implements were clustered on top from huge fangs of metal to wooden bowls and tools. He didn’t know what half of them were for but he dreaded discovering the creature that was big enough to use the fangs of metal. He made his insect move on and then mentally sat back to process the alien sights he had seen.

He had known of course that he had been created by whoever lived here, a mage by the name of Calamvor. Even now vocabulary drifted through his mind for all of the things he had seen, hazy constructs that flitted around his Core but the memories made them seem small. To Valterra though, these things were huge! What kind of creature was his creator that he could use and manipulate such things?

How could such a creature be killed? Even all of his current creatures wouldn’t be able to do such a thing, even if they combined their strength. His newest creation would perhaps only injure it before being slain. For the first time in his short existence, Valterra doubted if he was capable of protecting his territory if such creatures would eventually become invaders. The High Spirits had said that the Divine Dungeons were lauded as important and divine instruments by the tall folk.

But he was tiny. What would he be but an interesting diversion, especially if he could be taken so easily. ‘I have to hide.’ He thought. ‘I need to claim more territory, so much territory that finding me would be impossible. I’m so tiny, surely they would miss me if they had to search the entire forest. Yes, that is what I need to do, I…’

The declaration died on his lips as his view switched to his other insect who had been exploring all this time but was now clamoring for his attention.

It had found his creator.

It had found the corpse of Calamvor.