Chapter 307: Chapter 295 – Dungeon Hunt

Excerpt from the fifth draft of An Earthling’s Guide to the Larger Universe

Dungeon Types (Continued)

There are a few competitors for “most dangerous dungeon type,” but the one that is probably the most dangerous to the surroundings is called “contained growth”. Any “contained” dungeon can pose a serious risk, but when a “growth” dungeon is also “contained,” the dungeon must be controlled in some manner or it will overrun the surrounding area.

A “growth” dungeon will, over time, slowly increase in power. All dungeons do this in one way or another, usually adding levels with stronger monsters while the early areas stay lower in power. A “growth” dungeon, however, can also improve itself by increasing the power of its lower-end monsters. Some “growth” dungeons are essentially constant in difficulty, while others will increase as you continue farther into them; it varies. Rumors exist of dungeons with inverted or random difficulty curves, but if they exist they are unusual.

The “growth” type is often not mentioned in a dungeon’s description, as it seems to be more a preference of the dungeon itself than an actual type. To some extent, most dungeons do this, but the vast majority do not increase the entry area of the dungeon past the bottom end of the surrounding area.

Unlike a “wave” dungeon, which will periodically release a few monsters if it is not routinely cleared out, a “contained” dungeon does not ever send monsters outside itself. Instead, it creates more as needed - but like a wave dungeon and unlike other dungeon types - it does not remove monsters it no longer needs. Instead, they simply accumulate.

Eventually, a “contained” dungeon will collapse, destroying the dungeon and releasing all of the monsters. This is bad enough for a normal contained dungeon; the monsters will spread in something far worse than a “wave”. If the dungeon is also a “growth” dungeon, they will all be at the maximum Tier the dungeon can create and usually near the top end of the Tier.

The collapse of a “contained growth” dungeon has been responsible for the destruction of a large city on more than one occasion. There are monster-infested continents on some worlds where the legends among the survivors speak of hordes of monsters coming from nowhere; it is speculated that some of these may have been caused by large “contained growth” dungeons, as the monsters are not always intelligent.

Echo, Doyle, and Morwen were all available immediately, though Morwen needed to be back at the camp well before midnight. Since the closest plausible dungeon location was on the far side of the rockfish portal from Serenity Settlement, Serenity asked Echo and Doyle to meet them at the gate.

Morwen came and found Serenity. “You realize I’ve been up for less than an hour and you want me to fight.” She was dressed in jeans with something that looked like a green armored coat covering her shirt. Her only visible weapon was a small bronze-colored dagger she wore belted at her waist.

Serenity chuckled. Morwen hated mornings; this schedule was probably far better for her than the one she’d had to live with in college. “You know you love it.”

“Only with coffee.” Morwen pointedly took a sip from her insulated mug. “Seriously though, I already told you I’m a mage; lightning’s my preference for combat but I’ve been focusing mostly on detection spells. What about the rest of you?”

Serenity couldn’t help but grin. Morwen had always been one of the table strategists. “I’m a hybrid, melee and magic with some pretty significant self-healing; I can manage buffs but only with prep time. I’m planning to tank. I do have some equipment limitations at the moment; my shield’s still damaged from the rockfin and I don’t have a replacement polearm, so it’s going to be axe and claws. My armor’s repaired, fortunately; it wasn’t as badly damaged. Doyle’s a scout; primary is stealth but also good in melee. Echo-”

“Timeout.” Morwen moved her hands into a big T shape as she interrupted Serenity. “Did you just say axe and claws?”

“Yes?” Serenity wasn’t certain why she was asking.

“So … you’re going to be shifting while we fight? How will we know it’s you?”

If that was all she was worried about, it was easy. “You said you’d seen the news coverage - do you really think you’re going to mistake me for a dungeon monster, even with wings?”

Morwen stopped and stared at Serenity. “You were in your fighting form on live television?”

Serenity shrugged. “I needed to make a point. The point was to make a splash, not to stay hidden. There’s no organization or great force of nature trying to keep magic secret in the real world.”

“That you know of.” Morwen’s response was immediate.

“Fair enough, but if anyone’s trying it’s a bit late now.” Serenity’s thought drifted to the Guardians. He didn’t think they were specifically trying to keep magic secret, but they certainly weren’t trying to spread knowledge. Serenity couldn’t blame them for that; why should they?

They waited at the gate for less than five minutes before Doyle arrived with Echo and Serenity suddenly realized that the pickup wasn’t going to hold four in the cab and turned to Morwen. “Do you have a car here?”

Morwen shook her head. She’d probably realized exactly the same thing. “Nope. There was a whole van-load of us, we were met at the airport. We could probably borrow one, but it’d take time.”

Doyle hopped out of the driver’s seat and walked around to the two who were waiting. “You must be Morwen; you’re in the back with me. Keep it slow and steady, Serenity. Get us as close to the dungeon on roads as you can.”

“I can ride in the back.” Serenity didn’t want to kick Doyle out of the driver’s seat; after the long drive up to the Settlement, he knew that Doyle didn’t really like being a passenger.

Doyle shook his head. “No, I told you I was going to make you drive next time. You’re the only one who knows where we’re going, anyway.”

Serenity had to admit that Doyle had a point. It wasn’t a perfect point - Serenity could have easily sent him a map pin with the location they were heading to - but it was a point.

“So, I hear you knew Serenity back in college?” Doyle asked as he lowered the pickup’s tailgate.

“Yeah, he and I were the same year. Different majors, but we got to know each other …” Morwen’s voice cut off as Serenity closed the door.

Serenity chuckled to himself. Doyle wasn’t even trying to hide his interest in Serenity’s past. That was probably the real reason he was making Serenity drive, wasn’t it?

The first potential spot was actually quite close to the road. Serenity became worried when he started seeing water on the road; water at a nexus usually meant a water-based dungeon, which none of them was prepared for, but it sometimes meant something far more erratic.

He was worried enough that the warmth and comfort of not feeling continually half-starved couldn’t make him relax.

When they arrived, Serenity could see that his concerns were appropriate. He could see the ley line nexus from the road; it was even closer than he’d guessed.

Water fell from nothing at a point about two feet above the ground, exactly where the ley lines intersected.

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“What’s that?” Echo was the first to ask the question that Serenity was sure was on everyone’s mind.

“It’s a creation point or chaos point. If we’re lucky, water’s the only thing it creates. If we’re not, I may have to figure out how to do something about it.” Serenity frowned as he walked up to it.

“Where does the water come from?” Morwen wasn’t far behind.

Serenity glanced at her, then back at the water. “Nowhere. Or maybe from the humidity in the air. I’m not sure if anyone’s looked into that. As far as I know, it’s spontaneous matter creation, magic into matter.”

Now that he could see it clearly, Serenity could see that there was a tangled loop of essence around the creation point. That made it more likely that it was indeed actual matter creation, since that seemed to be exactly what essence did. He tried to reach out to Earth, only to find that she was watching him; she felt amused.

It’s a leak. Minor at this point; you can clear it up or leave it. If you clear it, a dungeon will likely form. If you leave it alone, it will probably eventually heal on its own, but that could be centuries.

She seemed to sense his curiosity, because she continued.

A dungeon probably tried to form here and failed. Either that or it succeeded then collapsed; either one can cause damage to the flows. Then an eddy formed, ripped a hole, and well - this. Water is minor; there are far worse things that it could spout. This is a very small hole, and I can easily compensate for it now that I know it’s here.

And yes, if it makes you more comfortable, you can call me Gaia. I’m not sure what’s wrong with Earth as a name, but it doesn’t matter to me. I’ve been called Gaia before.

Serenity hadn’t realized it mattered, but he had to admit that Gaia sounded more like a proper name than Earth.

Serenity nodded to himself and Gaia as he thought about the water. If there was no strong reason to clean it up, he might as well leave it. “The water is innately magical. It’s also likely to be pure water - probably purer than distilled. It’s used in some crafting, potions I think? Cuts down on some of the work that’s required.”

Morwen was already walking around the anomaly, taking pictures. “Direct matter creation is going to get some people’s attention, no matter what sort of matter it is.”

Serenity smiled and headed back to the pickup. There wasn’t a dungeon here, and he had no particular interest in magical water.

Two other vehicles had arrived before Morwen headed back to the pickup.

The second candidate nexus was also surprisingly close - less than fifteen minutes’ drive, which was far more closely spaced than the ley lines Serenity was used to from other worlds. It was not visible from the road, but Serenity was able to find a nearby convenient pull-off and they all piled out to go look.

“Why are you glowing?” Morwen stared at Serenity.

“Some kind of magical bleed-off. We’re in a ley line, they always make me glow.” It wasn’t until he answered the question for Morwen that Serenity realized neither Echo nor Doyle had asked - of course, they might have been just as distracted by the water coming from nowhere as Morwen was.

“Why?” Morwen asked the question, but Serenity could see that both Echo and Doyle were paying attention now.

Serenity shrugged. “Best answer I’ve got is that dragons are manavores. I am, at least. I think I’m getting more mana than I can handle when I’m in a ley line, so all I can do is let it bleed off harmlessly as light.” He bit his lip, then continued. “I’m hoping that I figure out a way to stop it some time soon; I’m not fond of glowing like a lightbulb.”

Serenity thought he’d fully answered the question until several steps later when Morwen sputtered, “You’re a dragon?”

Both Echo and Doyle started laughing. Serenity was certain they were both thinking of the very cute hatchling dragon he could turn into and he flushed. “Yes.”

It was a short walk to a field. Serenity could see green near him, but farther on some of it seemed to be more golden. It wasn’t until he was very close that he realized the field was full of corn plants, all of which were quite a bit taller than he was.

The nexus was squarely in the middle of the field; Serenity hoped they wouldn’t have to go past any plants to get to the dungeon.

That hope was upheld when he reached out to touch one of the corn plants and received the dungeon notification.

[Dungeon: Corn Maze]

[This dungeon formed at a ley line nexus which crossed over a corn field sometimes used for the popular entertainment of being a maze as well]

[Status: Light Population]

[Tier: One (Low) (Growth Available)]

[Type: Plant, Animal]

[Contained]

[No current assault(s). Maximum capacity per group: 5]

[Enter Dungeon?]