Dungeon Wars

by Jeffrey Logue

  “A bee? That’s one insect I’d love to see join the dungeon,” Claire complimented. “After all, bees are great at pollinating flowers, and they produce honey, a favorite treat of mine. Give it a go.”

  Doc directed the lesser mimic slime, which reached up a tentacle to snag the bee. The little creature could only sting desperately into the slime, failing to inflict damage or delay it being drawn in and devoured. The duo in the heart room watched as the lesser mimic shuddered before returning to peace without anything happening.

  “Perhaps the leaf muncher was a lucky break?” Claire offered.

  Doc said nothing, but a small swarm of bees materialled inside the slime. Claire winced at the sight of countless bees melting into nothingness, no noise to justify their death throes. Still, it caused the lesser mimic slime to shrink and change, becoming a carbon copy of the bee. Doc adjusted it into creating a spawn nest with set limits before releasing it to travel up to the forest floor.

  “I don’t have as many of any other insect to try, nor do I have the mana to keep the dungeon closed,” Doc said, an edge of disappointment coloring his words. “Perhaps next time we can experiment with more types of bugs.”

  Claire said nothing, but her mind trembled at the emotionless slaughter of so many bees. Her work, her misguided lessons, were at fault. What worse things would Doc do because of her?

  “I can’t think of anything I need to do,” Doc continued, failing to notice Claire’s mood. “What do you think?”

  Claire blinked her eyes as her attention returned to the moment. Her standard smile filled her face, not reflecting her inner self. “Then perhaps it’s time to open the dungeon back up to the forest. Let the animals and monsters come in and interact with your slimes,” Claire suggested. “Though, are you done with the new second floor? You fixed it up the way you wanted it, right?”

  “The second floor is still a maze, half of it collapsed, half of it covered with plants,” Doc said, bringing up an overhead image of the entire third floor. “I’ve enlarged it and added more maze-like elements to it, such as traps and treasures. For the moment, those treasures are discarded slime cores I picked up from dead adventurer bags from before. Their only purpose is to promote slime evolution, but I’m still not sure if it’ll work. Just in case, I’ve also placed various materials that we’ve learned can cause evolution. There is no end to the maze, just exits back up to the second floor.

  “There aren’t any slimes down there yet except the boss,” Doc continued, “but the struggling trap and treasure slimes seem to be drawn toward the maze entrances. Maybe they’re sensitive to treasure. Oh, and the mini-slimes live in a few of the traps. They don’t actually do anything except eat and wait to be used, though.”

  “Sounds about right for baby slimes,” Claire giggled. “Pity, though, that they do not evolve.”

  “Maybe. I’d have to observe longer to be sure,” Doc admitted. “Like some of the other slimes, perhaps they need be to become stronger first. For now, I think they’re satisfied with their existence. I haven’t been able to reform any of the boss slimes except the overslime, which is slumbering in the center of the maze. The Twins are still asleep.”

  Claire sighed, flying down to her adopted babies. She rubbed their heads, still not used to the feeling of slimified hair. That didn’t stop her from embracing them both.

  “They’ll wake up sooner or later,” Doc reminded her gently. “After all, with the natural dungeon finally beginning, the dungeon has never been livelier. I’m sure once I recover more mana, they’ll wake up just fine and be greeted with the wonderful new sights of their new home. They always wanted to run under trees.”

  “I hope so,” Claire said, wiping a tear from her eye.

  “I’m opening the dungeon now, ending maintenance mode,” Doc announced, sending small tremors through the dungeon.

  On the lower floors, the tiny mini-slimes vibrated with the movement of the dungeon. They became more active, wiggling around the small rooms hidden behind the launcher traps. One of them brushed against a part of the trap’s launching mechanism...

  On the third floor, treasure slimes paused as the tremors began, signaling their follower chest slimes to also wait. When the ground stopped moving, the treasure slimes resumed their course of hopping through the maze, occasionally stopping at a room and letting a slime take it for their own. As they made their way, the group came across a small group of grey family slimes: two armor slimes, a sharp slime, and a mage slime. With a wooden rattle, the mimic family slimes launched a surprise attack on the enemy slimes. The mage slime was the only survivor as it fled, leaving its fallen brethren behind as the mockeries of adventurer greed devoured and slurped down their prey.

  On the second floor, the forest lion watched from its new home atop a giant oak tree as two lesser mimic slimes were attacked by a swarm of leaf-muncher slimes. They were unable to effectively stop the tiny slimes from biting them and stealing their slime and soon fell to the ground dead. The lion waited until the swarm had left before dropping to the ground and approaching the dead slimes. It bent its head down and licked up the remaining slime. When it was done, it swallowed the two leftover slime cores. The forest lion faded away into the forest, hunting for more prey to fill its belly. As if an invisible wind was blowing, the lion’s fur jiggled slightly.

  In a hidden cave dug under a tree, a pair of green eyes flashed in the darkness, feeling the tremors subside. A scaled, furry, three-fingered hand reached out of the darkness, pulling its user out of the ground. It covered the entrance to the cave and stealthily made its way up to the surface.

  Anadine and Rowen continued to sleep in their respective rooms, each jiggling to the rhythm of the dungeon.

  Meanwhile, the sudden opening of the dungeon created a brief wind current between it and the outside world. While the fresh smells of the dungeon drifted out, a translucent blue seed drifted in, almost as if it were following the scent of mana. It drifted all the way into the forest, setting onto the ground. When the dungeon’s mana touched it, it glowed and sprouted roots immediately. In moments, a tiny blue flower sprouted up, shimmering and sparkling with all the color of dream.

  Chapter 10

  Blood.

  A sea of blood spread from horizon to horizon, all around her, never ending. It clung to her clothes, her skin, her hair, pulling her down, not letting her escape. Claire struggled and screamed to no avail as the blood holding her solidified into red hands.

  A figure arose from the sea, seizing her throat. The blood ran down his head and hair, revealing an adventurer missing half his face. The naked bones shook and cracked.

  “I had a family,” the figure said, his voice the scream of the sea and the whisper of the wind. “I had a wife and a son. They’ll never know what happened to me. They have no body to bury and mourn.”

  Another figure arose, pulling Claire’s hair. This time, a woman missing her legs.

  “I had hopes, I had dreams,” she screeched. “I was going to propose to the man I loved after finishing my last dungeon dive. But I died, and you just watched and laughed. Heartless monster, you laughed as I died!”

  “I’m sorry,” Claire screamed at the top of her lungs. “I’m sorry!”

  “He saved them for you while you slept,” another adventurer missing his left arm whispered. “And when you woke up, you watched our deaths for amusement, for laughs. Adventurers, we were all just adventurers to you—bugs to be squashed. How many of us died thanks to you? You never kept count. You never cared.”

  “Monster, monster!” the voices chanted together.

  “No, I’m not a monster!” Claire cried out, her heart awash in pain. “I’m a good girl! Mommy said so! That was—that wasn’t me—I just wanted—”

  “To be a good girl like she wanted,” a new voice echoed through the blood, but this time familiar to Claire.

  The sea in front of her erupted, revealing a beautiful pixie wearing a black dress dripping with blood. The pixie raised h
er fingers and licked the blood off with a seductive air.

  “You’ve done well, my precious Claire,” the pixie said lovingly. “You’re everything I ever wanted. Look how much blood you’ve spilled. Look how much life you’ve taken!” The pixie spread her arms out with a look of ecstasy on her face. Her four wings, pale grey outlined with black, spread in a show of effortless glory. Blood dripped off her, forming a dress filled with wailing faces.

  “I’m so proud of you! You really are mommy’s precious little girl,” she cooed. “Now, come with me. Let us sink together into this ocean of slaughter.”

  “No, I don’t want to!” Claire screamed. But the figure of her mother ignored her and embraced her lovingly. The hands of blood reached up to seized them both, pulling them deeper into the dark red ocean. Claire struggled, Claire begged, Claire screamed, but she could not resist as her head was dragged under.

  With her last breath, she raised her voice for help.

  “Father!”

  *

  “Huh... huh... huh,” Claire breathed heavily, her arms trembling as the little dungeon pixie became aware of the world around her. The warm air of the dungeon felt strange against the cold sweat on her brow, and she quickly wiped it away as if it were not sweat but something else.

  “It’s getting worse,” Claire murmured, pulling her knees to her chest and hugging them.

  The sight of her mother, once comforting, had been distorted by the dream into a figure of terrifying promise. That... thing was not the mother in Clare’s memory. Her mother was much scarier, she felt.

  How could she be sure, with her mind and memories a tangled mess still recovering. Claire didn’t know, and it terrified her.

  “I need to stop thinking about it,” Claire said, slapping her cheeks. “Stop it, Claire. You have a job to do. You can’t distract Doc with these kinds of problems. He can’t help you.”

  With a determined look, Claire got off her bed and cleaned herself of sweat and dirt. After drinking a meal of plant nectar, she wiped her lips and walked out into the heart room.

  “Good morning, Doc,” she greeted.

  Doc didn’t immediately answer her, much to her surprise. After a moment, he asked, “You okay? Your body is much paler than normal.”

  Claire inwardly smacked herself for forgetting to check herself in the mirror.

  “It’s alright. I just had a nightmare,” she was forced to explain.

  “You had a horse?” Doc wondered curiously.

  Claire’s mouth twitched into a small grin. It had been quite some time since Doc had last asked her this kind of question. It made her slightly reflective over their journey together, yet even today, his knowledge in certain areas was still lacking.

  His question, however, perked her mischievous side.

  “Yes, I did,” she said. “See Doc, everyone dreams while they’re asleep, but sometimes magical creatures called Night-Mares pass by and turn the dreams bad. They are even more magical than you or I and can’t be seen or caught. They are rather notorious for this.”

  “I see,” Doc hummed. “I’ll try to raise a magical barrier around your home tonight to block those pesky Night-Mares for you. I imagine having bad dreams is an unpleasant experience.”

  “Yes. Thank you, Doc,” Claire said, giggling to herself. “Really, though, don’t bother wasting your mana on a barrier. Night-Mares can’t be stopped, and they themselves are innocent creatures doing their job like a dungeon with killing adventurers.”

  That’s right, killing is just a part of the job. No need to feel guilty. Everything dies at some point. Claire could faintly hear her mother’s voice in her head whispering these words to her. She shook her head quickly.

  “If you say so,” Doc relented.

  “How is the dungeon doing?” Claire asked, flying over to Doc’s crystal.

  “Take a look,” he said, and his crystal revealed the cavern floor.

  Thanks to the new trees grown from seed, the cavern had diversified greatly. What was most interesting, however, was how the slimes living on the floor affected this new diversity.

  For instance, the herb slime family lived in the southern quarter of the floor. They were tending various small gardens of herbs and plants, each surrounded by thick undergrowth and trees. The aerial image displayed these gardens as oases in the sea of trees. The plant slimes and jungle slimes seemed to oversee their herb slime brethren, who moved through the gardens like workers. The poison slimes only patrolled the outskirts of the gardens like guards. Finally, the heal slimes stayed in the garden to use their magic on any hurt comrade. The herb slimes in particular seemed to have become more adept at fighting the leaf muncher slimes who attempted to enter the gardens and devour the flowers. The bee slimes, on the other hand, were allowed to come and go as they pleased.

  The bug slime family, bee slimes, and the leaf muncher slimes lived in the forests that covered the cavern floor. While they appeared to feast on every plant, the various lesser mimic tribes and their bug slime leaders often made attacks on the herb slime gardens to steal their harvest. The poison slimes were the gardens’ primary defense, and Claire watched in interest as another wave of ant bug slimes were repelled. The leaf muncher slimes were a larger nuisance, as their small size and flying ability allowed them to easily bypass the poison slimes. The herb slimes ate every leaf muncher they found, serving as both gardener and pest disposal.

  The third large group of slimes was the grey family. The group had used their gelatinous appendages to carve out a small system of caves in the north, with exits coming close to the staircase leading up to the dungeon entrance. Within the family, the bone and blood slimes stayed together with the magic slimes, while the sharp, armor, and gelatinous slimes had their own space as well. Being the most numerous, the grey slimes patrolled the floor most often, carving plant free trails through the dense undergrowth with ease. They collected any herb they could find, storing them in their caves. They also fought against bug slime raids, protecting their herbs. Interestingly enough, the grey family had mounted two attacks on herb slime gardens. Doc had saved the images of the second fight, and Claire noted how the grey family stole not only herbs, but two heal slimes as well. The two heal slimes were still living in the nest, mindlessly healing any hurt slime.

  The light slimes and the dark slimes were nonexistent except for the two groups controlling the time on the ceiling.

  The mimic slimes herded their lesser mimic comrades, of which there were few, into small communes in the forest. They acquired herbs by disguising themselves as other slimes and sneaking into both gardens and the nest. With their small numbers, they avoided fights as best they could.

  Finally, the chest slimes and treasure slimes had all migrated down to the maze level, preferring to acquire treasure and wait for prey to come to them. The treasure slimes were the last of the tier 3 slimes in Doc’s dungeon, an occurrence due in part to Doc having a few on the second floor before losing his powers. Unlike the other families, however, the treasure slimes did not interfere with their lesser chest brethren, instead opting to find a good spot to wait for prey.

  “Doc, why are your slimes obsessed with gathering herbs?” Claire asked. “The way they are behaving, it’s as if these plants are the lifeblood of the slimes.”

  “That’s because it is,” Doc explained. “I remembered how in your explanation of EDS you said the first level ate plants. I cut off every slime’s ability to gather the mana they need from the dungeon, so in order to survive, they have to ingest anything rich in mana. The herbs grown by the herb slime family have the highest amount of mana, prolonging hunger the best out of everything else. I decided this need would drive my slimes to act... more interesting.”

  “Well, they certainly are creating more than I expected slimes could,” Claire agreed as she swiped the image to view the gardens. “I know slimes in the wild congregate to similar species, but this is just fascinating. Look here, the ant bug slimes are having a territorial dispute with t
he beetle bug slimes! And here, the bone slimes are getting along with the armor and sharp slimes. For mindless magical creatures, they are surprisingly adaptable.”

  “It is interesting,” Doc laughed happily. “Look, the grey family slimes only eat the herbs they need, and then leave to gather more. They only stay in their homes when hungry. Otherwise, they are out patrolling. Humans would bicker and whine in this situation, but slimes just do what they need to do. There used to be frequent infighting, but they seem to get along now, more or less.”

  “Wait, are those bug slimes eating other slime cores?” Claire pointed out in surprise.

  “Of course they are,” Doc said. “Slime cores hold a lot more mana than herbs and can sustain any slime for a much longer period. That’s the main reason why the chest and treasure slimes don’t move on the second floor. They don’t need to hunt.”

  “How are you making more slimes then?” Claire asked.

  “The nest upgrade of course,” Doc revealed proudly. “I tinkered with it so that every slime nest requires a sacrifice of mana in the form of herbs or stones to create more slimes.”

  “And how do the slimes know to do this?”

  “Instinct... I think,” Doc admitted. “My belief is that the dungeon slimes are born with the understanding that the dungeon is their source, or mother. The nests give off the same feeling of familiarity as their stronger family members, and thus are given food like any other slime. They likely don’t even realize yet that more slimes are produced from the nests.”

  Claire took a closer look to find the slime nests. The nests were in the form of a slime-sized hole leading to a small room with a single stalactite hanging down the middle. When enough mana was offered, a tiny drop of Doc’s mana condensed at the stalactites tip and formed a new slime core, which then fell to the ground and grew a new slime.