The Dungeon Without a System

-0-0-0-0-0-

Unnamed Dungeon, Unnamed Island, Kalenic Ocean

Five days after the Humans Left

-0-0-0-0-0-

I thought that shoving mana into random fish and letting them mutate on their own would give me inspiration for a new monster, or create a new monster wholesale.

And I was right.~

With more than a hundred fish of various species packed into my second floor and each one saturated with mana, quite a few mutated some interesting abilities.

Firstly, the humble Angelfish. A beautiful but aggressive fish; It's leading edges and trailing fins became quite sharp, the scales at the edge ablative, metallic, and shaped roughly like an arrowhead. Its ability to accelerate quickly in a straight line has also been considerably boosted. The Arrowfish will be a potent addition to my collection. All it needed was a breeding population, which I happily provided. These fish seemed to lose their loner natures and preferred to swim in schools of five to six all the way up to twenty members, which complimented their smaller size, around 7-8 inches in length.

Next was a long, banded fish which gained mass, more powerful muscles and a mouth filled with big sharp teeth. It's original black, grey and red colouring gained a bit of a sinister tone, the red spots seeming more like bloodstains from it's messy feeding style. It wasn't a very social fish, though. When introduced to more of it's own kind, they preferred to spread and claim individual territories rather than swarm like a piranha would. It also grew from half a foot, to two feet in length, big enough to pose a serious threat to invaders and rip a good chunk of flesh with each bite. Probably for the best they aren't swarming creatures, in the end.

Thus, the Vicious Bloodfish was born.

With two good monsters, I decided I only needed a third species to round out the selection. With a smaller harassing monster and a medium sized damage-dealer, I judged that the final fish needed to be some kind of area-denial specialist.

Five days into my experiment, I found the perfect one.

A normal blue-toned fish had gained incredibly sharp scales and the ability to shed them all at once when threatened. In the dark water what looked like a blue, sparkly cloud was actually thousands of tiny scales, each sharp enough to cut and draw blood. I mutated it further to have multiple layers of scales ready to emerge, like shark's teeth. I also made sure they were about a foot in length, so they had enough scales to saturate a large enough area to matter. When multiple fish shed together they could fill an entire flooded corridor.

The Sharp-Scaled Bluefish was named.

Yeah, I know. Not exactly imaginative. I don't know the actual names of these animals and I wasn't an ocean biologist before I ended up here.

Names aside, the Bluefish, Arrowfish and Bloodfish all gained their own flooded spawning chambers which would hopefully keep their populations high. I also made sure all the 'failed' monsters were eliminated.

Some of them... didn't turn out too well. For example, one that mutated lungs then drowned.

Yeah, that wasn't pretty.

But either way, it was time to move on to my Boss Monster.

This time, the boss arena was completely submerged, with no air pockets. Unlike with Sebastian, this boss would not be fighting alone. I made sure there were plenty of access points for fish monster reinforcements, if they were required. The cuboid chamber was well decorated and carved with all manner of meaningless runes and symbols.

While the boss monster would be supported, it still had to stand on it's own. The only individually stong monster I had on this floor was the Bloodfish. It was an easy choice.

I took a female Bloodfish (Slightly larger and more territorial) and carefully enlarged it another three feet to a total of five feet, adding significant girth and weight to the already beefy fish. I made sure to empower it's muscles further to keep it's speed despite it's new size, while adding sharpened edges to it's fins and tails, in the same manner as the Arrowfish. I also increased it's brain size in comparison to the body. I only stopped when it felt about equal in intelligence to Sebastian. With not a little gravitas, I pushed a thought through our connection.

You are the Bloodfish Queen, Sanguina.

In response, I felt an acquiescence and the sense of... fealty? Is that what this is?

Finally, there was the exit. The first thing to do was provide a route to my crystal, for the mana stream. I added a long, thin grate of thick stone along the top edge of the room, with holes large enough to put an arm through but not much else. Not that a hand would reach the other side of the wall, of course. The actual door was a circular hole, ten feet in diameter, which was blocked by a square of stone set into the wall. Finally, I saturated the door with mana and impressed the intent that it was to move aside when Sanguina died. I added the same enchantment to Sebastian's Boss Arena exit, but made to move a stone barrier that prevented the doors from opening.

Now I just needed a bit of... decoration.

Those corpses littering my entryway will do nicely. Actually, you know what? I already have the 'temple reclaimed by nature' vibe with all the carvings, why not take it all the way?

I bored short holes in the walls that looked like dart traps, but did nothing. I had exposed spike traps. Without a way to create wood though, I couldn't make fake spear traps.

Why make them fake?

To hide the real ones.

I brought in corals and other miscellaneous plant-like animals from the reef, including urchins and sea stars. I littered them across the floor in a fairly random distribution. A quick infusion of mana made them sharper and brittle, hopefully enough to pierce an unarmored foot. A slow acting poison also wouldn't go amiss.

Then, for the final touch, I had the corpses stripped to their bones. One I kept in a single piece and placed in the Queen's chamber. The other I spread around, enough that any invaders would find random bones among the corals and in dead ends. Their weapons I piled into a stone chest, at a dead end you needed to pass a flooded tunnel to get to.

And so, my Flooded Labyrinth was complete. For now. The Starlit Caverns above now seemed a little bare in comparison, so I upped the number of stone arms in the place, leaving some laying broken on the ground, and yet others grasping from the walls. I also made stone hands in the walls of the twisting passages, just to freak people out when they brushed up against them in passing.

With some potential powerhouses coming in to potentially murder me, I needed as many defences as I could create.

Let's up the numbers of my defenders a bit, shall we?

-0-0-0-0-0-

Guildship Delver, The Kalenic Sea

On Course to the Unnamed Island

-0-0-0-0-0-

Felin walked across the deck of the small guild-owned ship. It was just small ship, big enough to carry their evaluation team and quick enough to get to the newly discovered island within two days.

The tanned man reached over his shoulder, making sure his longsword was still firmly attached in it's sheath. This new armor still wasn't comfortable, but that'd get better with time. Satisfied, he grunted and blew a black strand of hair out of his eyes. He'd need to get that cut when they got back. A glance over to the bow revealed where his oldest friend was standing, staring out at the horizon. Without hesitation he stomped over, his heavy footfalls making the wood deck creak slightly.

"We're close" Layla said, her gaze unwavering as he approached. "It's absorption rate isn't as powerful as I've seen from other Lost dungeons. If it is a Lost Dungeon, it was in hibernation and those merchants woke it up." Felin grunted again, looking into the sky. He couldn't see the Winds like Layla could, but he trusted her judgement.

"I don't like it." He finally said, after a few minutes of silence.

"I know you don't," Layla replied. "But we're the highest ranked party they have on hand right now. They've given us this mission and we will carry it out. The Winds confirm a dungeon at least, nothing else could cause such a widespread change." She turned to face him, her pale skin only highlighted by the black silk blindfold covering what he knew were eyes shining with starlight.

"Tell Teak and Herna to begin prep. We'll be there in an hour." Felin grunted and turned, approaching the staircase leading below deck.

It wasn't hard to find the two other party members. Teak was from the northern parts of the Phenoc Kingdom, a brown haired and pale-skinned man. His dark eyes almost glinted in the candlelight. He was a Rogue, clad in monster-leather armor with a pair of intricately carved and lovingly cared for daggers sheathed at his hips. On the table was his crossbow, which he was bent over and adjusting with his gloved hands. The long, thin fingers moved quickly and deliberately, faster than a normal human could even with decades of training and conditioning. In a flash the crossbow was pointed at him, a bolt released. Felin didn't move as the bolt hit the wood of the doorway he had entered with a thunk, passing an inch from his ear.

He didn't change his expression. He didn't even flinch. Teak sighed.

"Damn. I'll catch you by surprise one day," He promised. Felin grunted, pulled out the bolt and casually tossed it back at the man.

"You know, one day Felin isn't going to take your little tests with such good humor." Herna joked, the robed woman swinging back and forth in a hammock. The woman was also a Phenocian, but from further south, where the wooded lands bled into dry, sandy plains. Her tanned skin was darker than his own, though nowhere near as dark as a Hilian could get. Her orange eyes glowed in the light, flickering with the flaming candle.

"We almost there?" She prompted. Felin nodded, curtly, then turned and left. The others weren't offended by his curtness, it was just his nature.

They were all on the deck as they pulled up alongside a certain beach, flanked by a cave that glowed from within with an ethereal teal light.

-0-0-0-0-0-

More humans are here. Apart from the sailors who looked similar to the last ones, there was a group of four who stood out.

First; an unnaturally pale woman, likely an albino. She had a blindfold covering her eyes, though I noticed her face tracking the river of mana that poured into my entrance. They also wouldn't send a blind person into a deathtrap. Tentative confirmation that some humans could see mana. Hi Neo.

The two men wore leathers, though the one with the longsword had more metal studding his set than the one with daggers and a crossbow.

Knight and Rogue, respectively.

Finally, there was the tan woman with orange eyes! I couldn't be sure, but I'm guessing she's a pyromancer of some kind. I really want to see her perform magic, maybe I can replicate it for some traps, or in my monsters. But she's not going to be very happy, most of my dungeon is filled with water, or damp enough fire won't do much. I also don't know if my crabs were flammable. Hopefully not, but maybe I can fix that somehow if they are.

Either way, it didn't take long for them to disembark from the ship, take a rowboat to the shore and walk up to my entrance.

Now that they were inside me I could get a better look at them, with my own senses rather than Gull's. From what I could see, the two men had a significant amount of mana circulating around their bodies. Most of Knight's mana seemed focused on empowering his muscle and bone, with minimal but necessary attention to his nerves. Rogue had the opposite, heavily empowered nerves, with enough muscle and bone improvements to keep up with the increased reflexes and not tear himself apart with every movement.

Pyro's mana wasn't spread out in the same way, though there was some evidence of it. Most of Pyro's mana was gathered in a core, next to her heart, like my monsters. Actually now that I'm looking for it Rogue and Knight had cores to, but more as the center of their circuits rather than as a focusing point.

Neo's mana was focused in two places. Well, three, really. About two thirds of it was sitting in her core, while the other third was split between her eyes. I couldn't really guess as to what it was doing, beyond what I assume is letting her see mana. Maybe it ups her perception so much she needs to wear a blindfold so she doesn't go mad? Telescopic vision or seeing colors that don't exist maybe... I just don't know.

And it's driving me a little mad.

The little party of four stride confidently into the room. Neo's face is pointed right at the Mana-Star and eyes, and after a few seconds of observation she speaks for the first time.

"That ball of mana up there is terrifying. There is so much mana in it, that it should explode and evaporate us all, but it isn't. Something is preventing that explosion, and I have no idea what." She looks down and glances around the room. "Second rock to the right of the passage on the far side, and the third rock in the stack half-way around the cavern on the left. They're monsters." Within seconds of Neo speaking, Rogue brings up his crossbow and two bolts are shot with incredibly rapidity. The bolts speed across the room, both slamming directly into the Assassin Crabs that had hidden themselves.

Well, that proves it. Neo has mana-sight, and that lets her identify monsters by their mana. Rocks don't have much mana, only enough to claim it as mine. Both crabs died within seconds of the shots penetrating their shell. It was a clean penetration. Some kind of armor-piercing bolts? must be laced in poison too, can't imagine the crabs would have died so quickly otherwise. The party quickly moved to investigate the first crab, where Rogue used one of his daggers to hack off a claw, a leg and dug around inside the cracked shell to take it's Core. "Fairly large core, for such a small monster" He said something, then they moved to the second corpse.

I don't think I can sneak up on these guys or, at least, not while Neo is in play.

Sorry girl, but you're the primary target now.

-0-0-0-0-0-