***Anther’s POV***

After returning to the village, Anther charged into his father’s house first; he didn’t want to interrupt his mother in case she was still divining. “Father, I found a… dungeon!” Anther looked, but Yinether didn’t seem to be around. Frowning, he went back outside and jogged to his mother’s house. Pulling back the curtain, he saw that Anniil wasn't at the table anymore. “Mother?” he called. “I found a dungeon!” There was no answer, and he looked around to find that she was gone too.

Anther stepped back and closed the curtain, then stomped his foot. Fine! I’ll tell everyone else, then! You two can just be the last to know!

Anther started calling on his mother’s neighbors, but none of them were home even after he checked four houses. By now, he was beginning to feel worried. As a last thought, he left the main road and trotted to his great-aunt Januiil’s house.

“Aunt Januiil?” he tried half-heartedly.

“I know, I know! I’m almost ready, so just give me a minute!”

She was home! Anther quickly scrambled up the ladder to the second floor, where his great-aunt was gathering rolled up parchments into a sack, along with a few leather-bound books.

“Aunt Januiil, what’s happening?” Anther asked with bewildered eyes. “I just got back, and everyone’s gone.”

“Hm?” Januiil creased her brow and paused her hands to look at her great-nephew. “Anther, remind me, how old are you?”

“I’m 23,” he answered innocently.

“Yes, that’s right,” she muttered, quickly finishing stuffing the sack before tossing it over her shoulder. “They’re all in the elders’ council hall having a town meeting. You should have been alive for the last one, but I suppose you weren’t old enough to remember.”

The old woman started climbing down the ladder, and Anther hurriedly followed her. “What’s the meeting about?” he asked.

“Dragons, boy,” she called up. “Every twenty years or so, the dragon matriarchs produce their clutches. When many hatchlings survive, the weaker ones get sent out from the mountains to fend for themselves. Everyone is pooling together their techniques to try and figure out if there will be any coming our way.”

Anther’s eyes widened even more than usual. “What happens if dragons come here?!”

Januiil’s feet touched the floor, and she waited for Anther to stand beside her, then she flicked him on the forehead. “My house is two-hundred forty-five years old, child. The village won’t be harmed.”

The boy rubbed his forehead and teared up a bit. “Mmn, but it’s dragons, right? Will the whole village work together to fight them off?”

Januiil rolled her eyes. “Do you think our arrows can pierce dragon scales? Our offensive magic is sorely lacking as well. No, child. We will send word to the other regions whether dragons are coming here or not. Then, we elves and our friends will cooperate to send help wherever the dragons will turn up.”

The boy’s eyes began to sparkle intensely, and he hurriedly trotted after his great aunt, who had started walking toward the elders’ council hall.

“Do you mean,” he practically shouted, “that if dragons come here, beast people and demons will come to the village to fight them?!”

Anther had never seen members of the other races before, but he knew they were friends with the elves, and he knew they were strong and amazing. If they would be coming to the village, and if he could see them, that would be one of the most exciting days of his young life.

“Yes. If the hatchlings decide to come here.” She saw the boy’s ecstatic look and sighed. “Anther, it’s good to be excited to meet our friends, but we aren’t any weaker as a race than they are. It’s silly to idolize them.”

“But, but!” the boy clenched his fists in front of his chest and skipped a little, “I heard that beast people warriors wield huge swords that can cut boulders in half! And the demons’ magic can blow up a whole village! Isn’t that true, aunt Januiil?!”

The old woman sighed again, stalled for a minute, then flicked the boy a second time. Anther whined and rubbed his forehead, while she considered her words carefully.

“Yes, that’s true. The strongest beast people and demons can do even more impressive things than that.” Anther’s eyes glittered. Before he could shout ‘I knew it!’, the old woman kept talking. “However, there are weak people among them as well. Our defense and support magic is immensely stronger than what the demons can use, and remember that the beast people can’t use magic at all. Besides that, though our arrows won’t affect a dragon, an elf hero is on an entirely different level. None of the races are inferior to either of the others. Remember that, Anther. The world made us balanced.”

His parade had gotten rained on a bit, but he was still quite excited. Anther followed his great-aunt closely, humming while he walked. All thoughts of the dungeon had swiftly left his mind.

Soon, they approached the elders’ council hall: a rare stone building that was half buried in the earth and had a massive tree growing on top of it. It was just an ordinary tree, though: the true building was merely the white stone shape beneath it.

Immediately at the entrance of the building was a set of stairs leading down into the earth. The ground had been dug out to make a space large enough for the entire village to gather. It should have been hot and stuffy inside, but cool magical breezes were regularly flowing through to keep everybody comfortable.

At the center of the room was a short platform, wide enough for nineteen elves to sit comfortably. The sun priest and the moon priestess were both there. They were effectively the best at support and defense magic, the key magics bestowed upon the elves, and thus they were the most essential to the village’s safety in the event it was attacked. The sun priest, Belsam, and the moon priestess, Yushiil, were coincidentally siblings, so they had a very good relationship. Since the matter of the sun and moon priest getting along was key to a village’s prosperity, this was quite fortunate.

Sitting along with sun and moon priests were the twelve elders and four of the five craftmasters. The elders were no more wrinkled than Januiil, despite being over five-hundred years old. If their white hair weren’t braided and tied into elegant styles, it would likely drag on the floor when they walked. Their long years of experience in an often dangerous world was greatly reassuring.

The craftmasters earned their right to be there for being the most skilled elves in the village in particular fields. There was the head healer, the head archer, the head diviner, and the head scholar. Januiil, the head herbalist, swiftly went to fill the final empty seat. Anther knew that his mother was being trained to be the next head diviner, so soon he might have two family members as craftmasters.

Once Januiil had taken her seat, the sun priest smiled and inclined his head minutely. The chattering that had been going on quickly died down as everyone focused their attention on him.

“Everyone, thank you for coming. We’ll start investigating the matter of the latest clutch of dragon hatchlings, starting with the prediction of the head diviner. Nathula, if you would please.”

“Of course, of course.” A slightly short woman, around the age of Anther’s late grandmother, with pitch black hair and thin glasses, rose from her seat. She was a very strict and straight-laced woman, who made Anther uncomfortable to be around. It was because of her personality that he never learned anything about divination, despite it being his mother’s field of magical practice.

That woman adjusted her glasses and examined a yellowed paper she’d brought with her. “Then, according to my divination…”

***Archimedes’ POV***

It’s time to start building traps, Archimedes thought firmly. According to the analysis he’d done, one long ear wouldn’t be strong enough to force through his puzzles on its own. Even after understanding that the long ear who visited him was a child and projecting what adults and females would be like, they ought to be physically weaker than humans by a small margin. However, now that people besides that child would be coming, he had to consider more varied possibilities. There could be individuals that wielded strong magic or powerful technology. There could even be long ear heroes that were abnormally strong. And as long as he was thinking outside the box, what was to say that the “others” the boy mentioned were long ears like himself? Even if he thought more reservedly, if many long ears came in a group, they could pool their strength and become formidable.

The traps Archimedes would build would be a countermeasure against strong and impatient people who might force through his dungeon without solving his puzzles. He would make them simple but effective. Preferably, he would want designs that were more effective the stronger and stupider the opponent was. The traps following a puzzle would automatically disarm as long as the puzzle was solved, but Archimedes would be able to rearm them manually if he felt like it.

The third puzzle presented the least resistance since it was possible to pass through the illusory wall without ever solving the riddle. Because that didn’t quite sit right with Archimedes, he built his first trap there just to ease his nerves. And anyway, it would be unfair if somebody found the way forward without solving the riddle. He would also be upset if somebody solved it once, left, and came back, then simply walked through where they knew the path was because they were too lazy to present the answer a second time. Behavior like that would leave a sour taste in Archimedes’ mouth, so he didn’t want to reward it.

Just past the illusory wall--close enough that most people wouldn’t see it quickly enough to avoid it after passing through the illusion--Archimedes dug a hole about 5 meters deep, and four square meters wide. He made it shallow enough that people were unlikely to die because it wouldn't be fair to kill someone who was genuinely trying to solve the riddle and leaned against the “wall” for a rest, falling through by accident. That said, if they landed on their heads, they would likely die. There was also a reasonable chance for other mild injuries like bone fractures.

The way Archimedes saw it, he was already being more than gentle enough. To a certain extent, anyone who fell into a dungeon’s trap deserved their injuries. He didn’t want to kill any wise creatures that could help him, but neither did he want to baby his guests.

Pit traps were very easy to make, so Archimedes put another one behind his first puzzle. Unlike the Light-Hating Illusion Door, there was no way to accidentally slip past his tile puzzle. Entering his dungeon without solving it was equivalent to smashing the door open; so he could be a bit more vicious with the punishment. Archimedes added plenty of jagged wood, stone, and metal spikes at the bottom of the pit. Even someone wearing steel armor might get done in by those spikes after falling five meters.

The offering puzzle was guarded by Wolfbats. Instead of building a separate trap that might harm his own monsters, Archimedes just made more Wolfbats to guard the first room. He stopped when he had twenty of them, because if that many weren’t enough, then he would just be wasting mana by making more. If a group could slaughter a nest of twenty weak monsters, they were likely to maintain their advantage until the enemy numbers entered the hundreds. If he only lost twenty, he could still recoup his losses.

For the fourth puzzle’s trap, Archimedes felt like mixing it up a little. He made circular blades that would swing down from the ceiling. All of the traps before had come from below. If the invaders got into the habit of looking at their feet, an attack from above should be quite effective.

None of the traps he made were original, apparently. Archimedes would have been surprised if they were: they were all very basic traps. If a simple pit trap had been deemed a new Puzzle, he would start to wonder if there weren’t any other dungeons in all of Usain. It was reassuring to see a new Traps section appear in his list and fill up naturally.

However, that still wouldn’t change his policy of hating unnecessary siphons on his processing power.

“It’s unnecessary. I’ll tell you if there’s something I want to be displayed, so just hide everything else by default. I know you can shorten it more than that.”

The list flickered, and a new category was added, containing the names of all the categories that had nothing to display. At the same time, all of the empty categories were removed from the list. It became much shorter.

“Much better.”

Right now, the traps Archimedes had built were armed and active. He needed to create a pattern that would disarm all the traps between two puzzles when the leading puzzle was correctly solved. The best pattern Archimedes could afford at the moment would only extend over a single floor. He wished he could make dungeon-wide patterns and save himself some future effort, but they were far too expensive for his current self; the amount of time he would need to save mana for in order to build those was much more than he could spare. Actually, with his current body, he didn’t have the confidence to hold that much mana even if he accumulated it. There was no choice but to settle for an inferior pattern.

I don’t remember my earliest years clearly, but if things were supposed to move this quickly, no dungeon would ever last to its tenth floor. He sighed, feeling animosity toward the long ear that stumbled upon him after only a few days. Now that child would bring who knew how many of his friends to the dungeon. I had enough work as it was.

Fifteen hours, compared to Archimedes’ long life, should have felt like an instant, but he was constantly watching for invaders with an anxious heart, so the time dragged on considerably. In the end, though, Archimedes finished his floor-wide pattern. The remaining time until the long ear child returned would be devoted to making any improvements that could be made.

Archimedes funneled mana into two more Wolfbats until they evolved into Dungeon Bats. He also made a single Dungeon Wolf, because he couldn’t keep fighting his old instincts. That monster was far stronger than his Dungeon Bats, so he put her in the third room with his core as a final guardian.

Though he wondered a bit why he was doing it, he also put a sign in his first hallway. It said, “It is natural and expected for people to claim any treasures they find in dungeons.”

It would be good if that strange child corrected his way of thinking.

Leaving a dungeon without plundering it was clearly aberrant behavior. There wouldn’t be a dungeon that expected to be able to keep all that it created. If people came inside, they would steal whatever piqued their interest. Many dungeons manipulated that greed in order to survive. Archimedes didn’t think that way of living was wrong. Rather than thousands of dungeons and billions of people being wrong, it should be the one ignorant long ear child who was wrong instead. Archimedes would help correct him.

***Anther’s POV***

There would be no dragons this vicennium; that was the conclusion the meeting had come to. After getting his hopes up so much, the result could only make Anther sigh.

With the predictions concluded, all that was left was for the elders to send notices to the nearby cities that their village wasn’t expected to face dragon attacks. Included in that message would be an account of the troops and food aid they could send to villages that were expected to be attacked. For Anther, the excitement stopped here.

The crowd had gotten to chatting again, but the meeting still had to be wrapped up. The sun priest lightly cleared his throat and smiled down at everyone.

“So, that matter seems to be settled, but I’ll ask just in case: are there any other announcements before we go?”

It was quiet at that moment. People seemed to be perking up their ears for any other interesting news. Anther turned his head to the left, then to the right, and when he saw nobody saying anything, he raised one of his hands in the air. He didn’t need anyone to call on him. He just wanted to make sure he was seen since most of the people gathered were adults who were taller than him.

He said it calmly since it didn’t seem all that impressive after his dream of seeing heroes fighting dragons was born and died. The sound of Anther's voice split the silence.

“I found a dungeon in the forest.”

__________________

Costs (Compressed):

Spoiler: Spoiler

Monsters (per 1)

Dungeon Bat: 130 / 7 min | Dungeon Wolf: 150/ 8 min | Wolfbat: 30 / 5 min

Materials (per 10cm x 1meter x 1meter / real-time)

Fresh Air: 23 | Live-Giving Water: 41 | Vivacious Soil: 34 | (Lesser Materials Omitted)

Biomes

Fertile Cave

Additional Categories Omitted:

Animals, Plants, Fungi, Constructs, Traps, Puzzles

Costs (Expanded):

Spoiler: Spoiler

Monsters (per 1)

Dungeon Bat: 130 / 7 min | Dungeon Wolf: 150/ 8 min | Wolfbat: 30 / 5 min

Animals (per 1)

Cave Rabbit: 14 / 2 min | Earthworm: 3 / 15 sec | Dung Beetle: 8 / 25 sec | Moth 6 / 13 sec | Pill Bug: 4 / 25 sec | Termite: 4 / 22 sec

Plants (per 1 or per 1 square meter as appropriate)

Bee Balm: 9 / 36 sec | Black Pepper: 10 / 45 sec | Blue Land-Coral: 18 / 50 sec | Glow Moss: 6 / 25 sec | Grass: 5 / 30 sec | Fern: 5 / 25 sec | Ice Fern: 13 / 48 sec | Weeds: 7 / 13 sec

Fungi (per 1 or per 1 square meter as appropriate)

Mycelium: 4 / 15 sec | White Fungus: 6 / 18 sec

Materials (per 10cm x 1meter x 1meter / real-time)

Asbestos: 16 | Beryl: 17 | Dirt: 5 | Fresh Air: 23 | Granite: 11 | Live-Giving Water: 41 | Stone: 10 | Vivacious Soil: 34 | Water: 15

Constructs (per 1 / real-time)

Large Copper Spring: 8 | Sliding Stone Door Bar: 4 | Sliding Puzzle Tile: 3 | Small Rock: 2 | Stone Door: 22 | Stone Door Bar: 4 | Stone Plaque: 4 | Tiny Copper Spring: 1

Traps (per 1 / instant)

Pit Trap: 150 | Pit Trap (mixed spikes): 200 | Pendulum Blade: 200

Puzzles (per 1 / instant)

Double-Door Button Sequence Puzzle (dungeon core growth): 4,068 | Double-Door Sliding Puzzle (12 tiles, stone): 95 | Double-Door Offering Puzzle (cave rabbit): 56 | Light-Hating Illusion Door: 260

Biomes

Fertile Cave: Fresh Air; Live-Giving Water; Fertile Soil; Diverse Plants, Fungi, bugs, and small mammals.