Watching through the eyes of the lead kobold I learned that Arizo had been wrong.

She rushed up the incline near the dungeon entrance to let her creator see more of their territory. The rise was not the start of the mountain but only a hill. At the top there was a tree she could climb that gave a good view.

To the east the forest was coated in a purple haze. The kobold hissed at the area. All her senses telling her it was a threat. To the southwest was a massive mountain. The top hidden behind the clouds. A faint blue line could be seen due west.

“A river. Too far for us to reach right now.” The creator said in her mind. “Thank you for surveying. Please return to me and recover.”

With a nod she made her way back home. Leaving the dungeon was alway hard but going so far made her weaker than usual. The 2 spearmen had to come out and help her the last dozen feet.

She vowed she would get stronger. That one day she would have the levels and strength to make it to that river and mountain. Looking east she planned to kill anything that came from that hase and threatened her creator.

Not knowing the kobold’s thoughts I turned back to digging.

The depth was good and the first room was done.

The odd feeling of something entering the dungeon and a scream from a spearmen stopped work.

Looking at them there was a group of creatures about the size of the chickens attacking the spearman. The still recovering leader rushed out of the kobold room to help. I called the other 3 that were out collecting to come back. I doubted the pack of 7 winged things could be beaten by 3 kobolds.

These creatures didn’t stir any memories. I doubted if I had ever seen them before. Though I felt bad for them. They didn’t look well, their eyes were crazed. They were each covered in reddish brown colored scales. From nose to the stinger on their tails was about 3 ft. Some were using their claws to attach to the walls and attack the kobolds from the air. Mostly focusing on their sensitive noses and eyes.

The thrusting of the spears was of little use against the nimble things, but the leader's sword was effective.

By the time the other kobolds arrived 2 of the things were dead but one of the spearmen was blinded and the other lost an eye. The leader was bleeding but she had used her short blade to keep the beasts off her face. Out of them all the shovel ended up being the best weapon.

Once there were only 2 of the beasts left, they fled down the hall away from the kobolds and deeper into the dungeon.

I told the kobolds to rest. They were all worse for wear.

the bodies dissolved but I didn’t get any notifications. Pulling up my creature's screen I could see that something new was there but I couldn’t read it yet. Guess I can't see what they are until all are dead or leave.

The floor traps did little to stop the things, and all the shooting traps did was send them toward the garden. Hissing and scratching could be heard as they got to the door there.

Screeching and clawing at one another they headed back the way they came. They seemed to fly short distances and then grab onto the stone and scurry for a bit before flying again.

One of them paused and its eyes seemed to fix on something. Just as it leaped I noticed the spider on the floor.

I chuckled. I’d been wanting a spider and just now realized they were smaller than Arizo so the orders to the kobolds meant they had been ignored. No longer interested in the things that were fighting over the arachnid, I searched my floor for more creatures I had missed.

There I found several different spiders, insects, some small lizards and more mice. Though none could pass my closed doors so they were only found in my first hall and the kobold room.

Looking at my list of creatures none of them were there.

Puzzling why was interrupted as one of the things I couldn’t identify was killed by the other and the last flew/ scurried back to the kobold room. Where it was promptly killed.

Blueprint Unlocked: Pseudo Dragon

Blueprint Unlocked: Stinger

Stinger: A barbed appendage used to attack. Can inject venom. Usefulness in potions and alchemy vary based on the creature it comes from.

Now that shows up in creatures and costs 2 DP. They may be good for the next floor with the snakes.

Back to looking for my spiders.

They were in the materials page. Spiders, skinks, geckos, insects and salamanders. Along with spiders silk. All but the geckos said they could be evolved into dungeon defenders but I had no clue how to do that.

Grumbling I opened all my doors to let the critters farther in. ….. Critters. Thinking on it I made a new tab under my blueprints to hold all the critters in my dungeon. Right now there were 5. Looking at my memories of each; Spiders, skinks, geckos, insects and salamanders. I knew there were 100’s if not 1000’s of each type. That they were currently all lumped into one group bothered me.

With a sigh and a growing list of questions I turned back to digging. Though soon turned away from it again. Curiosity over the critters in my dungeon kept me from enjoying expansion as I had just a couple hours ago.

To cheer up I watched my mimics. They were mostly settled but 2 of them seemed to be sleeping with their tongues hanging out which I found adorable. My floor boss hasn't moved since it turned into crystal form. Looking closely at it I could feel contentment so I left it be.

Commotion from the chicken room drew my attention. There was screaming and flapping as a few of the insects had made it that far and were being devoured. I knew I could order them to leave the insects be but I left them to their fun.

I turned to the bats next out of concern. They were just hanging about the room quietly. Poking one it opened its eyes lazily and flicked an ear. Seems like since they didn’t need to hunt they had little interest in the insects.

An insect had landed on the surface of the water and was gulped by a blind cave fish. There were about 8 of the fish in the pool and 4 shrimp. They weren’t creatures I created, they just came with the little cave I found. Knowing I was farther from Mount Peleter than Arizo though I wondered how long it would be before I found another cave.

For some reason the grim reaper guardian in the cathedral room didn’t bother me as badly as Sally, Jack and Emily. It being still and motionless seemed more natural. Maybe because it looked like a statue. Should I give the others stands to stand on so they didn’t feel so much like discarded dolls?

Before I could get lost in sadness again I looked to the garden. Some of the lizards had made it there and were loving the nice soil. The insects were already munching some of the leaves on my honeysuckle. It looked like they knew what was edible and what was deadly. Watching the garden feel more alive with new creatures was nice. I liked that things could call my dungeon home, even if I didn’t make them. Looking at a gecko that had climbed up to one of the wall hanging plants, I wondered what it thought of me.

________________________

My kobolds were mostly healed. The blinded one wasn’t fully recovered but he was still standing guard with the other spearman. The other 4 were milling around the 2 rooms that they lived in. They didn’t seem bored but I wondered if they would like something to do when there was no one coming and their time outside each day was up.

As I paused to think of what I could make to keep them entertained another group of creatures entered. I slammed my doors shut. They were all different and all wrong.

Looking at them caused both fear and sickness to flow through me. Memories from 2 different lives slammed into me. One for the large 4 legged creature and the other for the smaller twisted beings. While the names and the capabilities of these beasts didn’t come to me the fear of them did.

Once I was able to push the fears of my past lives down I focused on the kobolds and decided to help direct them.

I had the 2 spearmen face the 4 legged creature, it's shoulder is as high as they are. The others were to kill the smaller beings that ranged from half the size of a bat to bigger than the pseudo dragon. While those things looked wildly different, my memories told me they were the same species.

The large beast had 2 heads at its front and a snake as a tail. The spearmen were doing good at keeping the thing occupied and staying out of the way of the tail strikes. When it whipped its tail at one of them the other had an opening to stab at the beast. Watching the thing fight it was obvious that it had little intelligence. It kept falling for the same tactics and being bloodied over and over.

The little beings were harder to handle. There were 11 of them and the 2 largest were the first to fall. They had a longer reach but no natural weapons like claws or teeth. The leader and the axe wielder cut them down before turning to the others. Watching them fight I realized I needed to give the female with the saw another weapon for fighting. She swung the saw and the flat side hit a being and broke. Now she had no weapons other than her claws and teeth. Which were working better but had her get so close that she was in the way of her allies' attacks.

The larger beast was slowing down but in the desperate struggle one of the kobolds spear struck bone and was ripped out of his hand as the beast turned.

Now faced with one spear and one unarmed kobold the thing leaped and downed the unarmed one. The other tried to get it off by stabbing the beast but that only got him bitten by the tail. Using my overhead view and quick mind I had the axe female attack and cut the head off the snake while its fangs were still in the spearman. He collapsed and from the shaking I knew he would die soon so just reabsorbed him to stop his pain. The one that was pinned was dead as well but as the beast was now eating him I couldn’t absorb the body.

While the beast was distracted I had the axe woman make an overhead chop into the back of one of its necks. There was a spray of blood and a scream from both heads. Jerking around caused the wounded head to fall silent as the motion finished killing it. But the final head, the one with the sharp fangs was still alive and even more pissed.

During that struggle 6 more of the smaller beings were killed leaving 3 to go. Even without my instruction the female that broke the saw grabbed the spear still in the beasts shoulder and yanked. While she didn’t pull it free it must have hurt as the beast turned from the axe woman whose weapon was not suited to facing this beast head on. She didn’t let go of the spear and was jerked with the beast. That was enough to loosen the weapon and she rolled toward the entrance with the bloody spear in her claws.

Watching them struggle I wanted to join them and attack as well. While the other attacks had interested me, this time I wanted the things dead. Not just to protect myself but that something deep down told me these things had no right to live.

The male with the shovel and the leader were working well against the more nimble beings. He dazed them with a shovel hit and the leader ended their lives.

As they were mopping up the last of the little beings the female with the spear stabbed the beasts flank making it expose the other neck to the axe. One chop was not enough to end it this time. And she was raked with claws and thrown back by the desperate dying beast.

Finished with the last of the little ones there was no hope of the beast winning. It seemed to know that and wanted to take as many with it as possible. Tackling the leader to the ground it tried to kill her like it had the other spearman but this time it was klonked in the head by a shovel and stabbed by a spear.

From her prone position the leader stabbed her blade up into the hollow of the beasts throat. Twisting her blade the thing finally went limp.

Now that the fight was over the beast was quickly absorbed leaving the batted leader free to stand.

“All of you come to my room.” I called them.

As they were getting to their feet and doing as I said something odd happened.

“Young one” A powerful voice called. I could feel the weight of something so much older and more than me. “You have done well in slaying these things.” The praise from this being filled me with warmth. “Now you have a choice. Give up the blueprints for these things and I will give you a gift.”

I sat in silence not able to speak for an unknown amount of time. The voice seemed patient,like they would wait for eternity for my answer.

“What will you do with them?” I asked, “And who are you?”

There was a warm chuckle that filled my being. “Nothing. The making of these creatures is abhorrent to me. That is why I will reward you for their deaths. As to who I am… I am called Life. I was quite impressed with your words to fate about my opposite. Which is why you have my boon as well as theirs.”

“Thank you. Is it our connection that makes these things feel so wrong?”

“No.” The tone of the answer told me that Life was surprised at my question. “I do not know why you felt that way. Feelings are not the domain of other beings. While there are some that can influence others feelings there is no god of them.”

Thinking that over. “Will you at least leave the knowledge of what those were?”

“I will.”

“Then you can have them. I think one of my past lives would rebel if I ever tried to make one.”

Another chuckle. “Goodbye little dungeon. Don’t let anyone tell you that you are just a filter.”

With that Life and her presence was gone.

Knowledge flooded my mind.

Blueprint Unlocked: Pear Wood

Blueprint Unlocked: Pear Tree

Blueprint Unlocked: Pear

Blueprint Unlocked: Cherry Tree

Blueprint Unlocked: Cherry

Blueprint Unlocked: Cherry Wood

Blueprint Unlocked: Ebony Tree

Blueprint Unlocked: Ebony Wood

Blueprint Unlocked: Wolf Spider

Cherry: An edible stone fruit produced by the cherry tree. Can be consumed fresh, canned, as juice, and dried. The juice can also be used in jellies and jams.

Cherry Tree: A flowering plant of the rose family that usually grows 50- 100 ft tall. Aside from the fruit all parts of the tree contain poisonous compounds and are therefore slightly toxic. Though the stems are used in healing and pain relieving potions.

Cherry Wood: A hard wood that is used to make fine furniture. The heartwood varies from rich red to reddish brown and will darken with age and on exposure to light. The sapwood is creamy white. The wood has a straight-grain, fine, uniform and smooth texture.

Ebony Tree: A slow growing evergreen with a dense crown. Grows to about 100 ft. Has dense hardwood and is disease, fungus and insect resistant. Due to logging this tree has become scarce making it even more valuable and in some places protected. Fruits while edible are mostly used for medicines and potions.

Ebony Wood: This black wood is so hard and dense that it will not float on water and is extremely hard to cut and shape. Easy to polish to a mirror finish while being water and termite resistant.

Pear: Fruit of the pear tree. Can be consumed fresh, canned, as juice, and dried. The juice can also be used in jellies and jams. Fermented pear juice is called perry or pear cider.

Pear Tree: A member of the rose family that grows between 30 and 60 ft tall. Valued for their edible fruit and harwood. Then can live up to 75 years. Both leaves and bark have medical uses.

Pear Wood: A hard stable wood that resists warping and splintering. Coloring ranges from pinkish to tan. Preferred wood for making high quality woodwind instruments. When burned it produces an aromatic smoke.

Along with those new blueprints I also knew that the multi- headed beast was a chimera and the other ones were homunculus. Both made by using magic to alter creatures and turn them into slaves. The homunculus was worse in my opinion. Too much like the guardians that had no life or emotions unless their creator gave them one.