While Teemo and Aranya walk and chat, I use the time to go over what I want to do with the new expansion. One of the big things is to get the aranea Enclave going. I’ve been sitting on that for a while now, and now I actually have the room for them to grow. I’m also going to need to upgrade some of my other spawners to help fill in the caverns a bit.

My snakes have an upgrade or two before they max out, and they’d probably do pretty well down there. I spend the mana to upgrade the spawner and it spits out a couple spitting cobras, which is pretty cool. I’m a bit low on denizens with ranged attacks. I don’t think they’ll be good for in and around the manor, maybe one or two in the tunnels? They look pretty tough. They should be fine in the caverns, though.

I’m not going to upgrade my birds for down there. That’d just be kinda mean to put them that far down, away from the sky. I could upgrade my bats, though. I’m gonna leave off on them for the moment. I’ve been ignoring my slime spawner for way too long.

I haven’t even specialized them yet. Looking at the options, there’s a couple that are interesting. The choices look like either slimes, jells, or oozes. The slimes look like they’ll be the walking-jello-mold variety of slimes: big squished spheres that may or may not have faces. I’m leaning away from that one, mostly because, while they look cute in a cartoony way in a lot of games and such, I feel like they’ll sit squarely in the uncanny valley in reality. They’re the physical specialization. I could use some more bruisers, but I think I’m going to be taking my earth elementals down the bruiser route.

Jells appear to be the magic specialization, and I think I can give them any aspect I want. I wish my experiments with breaking the magic system could have progressed further by now, so I’d have a better idea of what could really break things. Still, more magic could be nice. On the other hand, I have my tundra wolves and the go juice, so I do have some magic to throw around. Physically, the jells are vaguely humanoid, looking like someone took a soft clay doll, removed all the detail, and slammed the thing down so the legs squish into a puddle. They get a maybe.

The one that’s drawing my eye is the oozes. They’re the resource specialization, but I have no idea how they’ll work. My other resource denizens are mostly focused on plants, though the ravens and pack rats get general loot stuff. What would an ooze do? Would they be like gold slimes or something, rare spawns that drop really cool stuff? A big experience reward would be cool, but I don’t know if that kind of thing even exists here. This one’s tempting just for the mystery. What to go with… oh, looks like Teemo and Aranya are there now. Let’s meet the neighbor.

Violet

Danger comes. Strong… far too strong! What is it?! The new centipede and mushrooms will not be enough, but they muster all the same. If they are to perish, it will not be without a fight!

The doom looms close, and the young dungeon can finally sense with more detail what it looks like. One is a larger invader, the soft ones of teeth and claw. Unlike the lesser vermin, this one radiates power and purpose. It alone could very likely destroy the young dungeon!

The other is large and unique. It is neither hard like the centipedes, nor is it soft like the invaders. It wears softness, but underneath, it’s like a moving pile of stones. It, too, radiates power… the same power of the larger invader.

These are not simple invaders, nor are they the delvers like the big mushroom and bigger not-mushroom. These are Conquerors! The denizens gather to make the outsiders pay in blood if they wish to take their dungeon!

The Conquerors deliberate just outside for a few minutes… and then they are inside. They don’t simply step across the border. They move strangely, and just suddenly exist deep in the dungeon, well past the desperate denizens.

The one of stones says something that the dungeon doesn’t understand, and a wave of orange spreads from it. It washes over the denizens, and their movements are slowed, their panic calmed. It washes over the small core, and the dungeon itself is much less terrified as well. Before it can work itself back up into a tizzy, the invader speaks.

“Easy there. We’re not here to hurt you.”

Not hurt? Lies!

The invader shakes its head. “It’s the truth. We haven’t harmed you nor your denizens. And if you don’t believe that, just check our designation.”

The dungeon cautiously does so, knowing it will simply be told there are two Conquerors inside. It looks at the designation with confusion, and the invader smiles.

“See? We’re Envoys. We’re here to talk.” The dungeon doesn’t know how to respond, and so the invader soon continues. “I’m Teemo, and this is Aranya. We represent Thedeim, a dungeon not too far away. He’s known you’re here for a while now, and even helped get Rhonda and Freddie to come take a look and help you.”

The big mushroom and bigger not-mushroom?

The invader… Teemo laughs and nods. “Yes, them. They can help you grow stronger, and soon other delvers will come to interact, too. Thedeim would like to help you grow, give you some pointers and help you avoid pitfalls. Will you accept his help?”

Accept Mentor? Yes/No

Protection?

Teemo nods. “Yes. He already has been sending expeditions around to ensure nothing too nasty stumbles into you.”

Accepted. Protect. Help?

The dungeon can feel a portion of its mana income be reserved for its Mentor, and it worries if it’s made the correct choice.

“Don’t worry, Violet. The Boss will do everything he can to help you. He’s got two things for you to do, too. First: secure your core. The mushrooms aren’t fooling anyone. Even worse, if something big comes and actively wants to eat them, your core might get gobbled up along with them!”

Alarm!

“So you should get it somewhere secret. I even see a good spot for it. You’ve got a lot of cracks in your ceiling. Delvers never look up, so you should hide up there.” He looks to the one of stone. “Can you give me a toss up there? That little space between those two stalactites? Thanks.”

The large one moves and Teemo sails towards the small crevice, and somehow disappears inside. The dungeon can feel something happening, like an expansion but on a smaller scale… and without costing mana. After a few minutes, Teemo jumps out and is caught by the one of stone.

“There, that should give you plenty of room for a secret sanctum for now. Your centipedes should be able to get you up there, and a few mushrooms should be all you need to keep flies and stuff out.”

The dungeon looks at what Teemo did, and is confused, impressed, and grateful. The space is perfect to secure itself. It can feel some strange kind of magic, but it appears it will not fade unless it is deliberately broken. As it examines the new space, Teemo speaks up again.

“The other thing the Boss suggests you do is to get a resource node. Normally, that might draw a stronger invader and could be trouble with you so young. But with the Boss here, his expeditions should be able to keep anything too nasty away. Delvers love nodes. They’ve been picking your mushrooms probably thinking those are a node, too.”

Why?

“Well… delvers like to make stuff. It doesn’t matter if it’s a big powerful sword or a simple mushroom stew, delvers will take what they can get their hands on and do something with it.”

Mentor Thedeim does stuff with me? Change me? He is delver?

Teemo seems taken aback at that for a moment, but thinks it through and nods. “A bit, yeah. He doesn’t want to change you into anything different. He wants to make you a better you.”

Better me? It’s a strange concept, but an appealing one.