[Short Story] Dungeon In A Tree (Patreon)

‘Oh, that’s a thing.’

Not the most glamorous of first sapient thoughts, but it was mine. Then again, it was a complete thought. Which I doubt is the case for most. Leastwise, the elves that seem insistent on delving into my dungeon don’t get much grace. Pretty certain they cheat and get born with a soul that is already awakened. The cheaters.

Why can’t they keep falling for the traps after finding them?

Eugh, whatever. Wasting my time, been too high on life. Leastwise, that’s what I’m calling it. Someone said it at some point and it stuck in my sleeping mind. Not complaining about that. I think, heh, that thinking would be a lot harder without this language to base it around.

Though speaking of language, heh, I think something must be wrong? They’re calling me a beginner dungeon? Sure, I only have ten floors, but that’s because I’m a tree! There’s only so much space to expand into, you know?

If anything, they should celebrate that I managed to do so much! Trees don’t exactly have all that much room to expand into, you know? Like, they all say I’m in a world tree or some nonsense?

Or rather, I guess it is a world tree at this point? I think? Didn’t start that way, though! Once again, only woke up, what? A week ago? Wait, a couple days passed? When did that happen? Whatever, this tree was originally your average oak tree! Not even an ironwood or something fancy.

Then I came along! Formed right in the center of the tree’s heartwood. Kind of awkward, but magic, you know? It makes things work out even if it shouldn’t. In this case? That meant using my power, which I frustratingly don’t have a word for, to force evolve the tree and grow it to a proper size to hold me.

Even then, I think it was only an ancient ironwood equivalent. The whole “world tree” thing came later. Mainly after way too many generations to count at this point, the sun started to die and would have swallowed the world. That would have put a crimp in my plans of not dying and so when my instincts informed me of the danger, my sleeping mind dumped all of my unnamed power into the tree.

This wasn’t a problem at the time seeing as no one was in the mood for delving. Anyway, long story short, the tree transitioned from whatever evolution of an ironwood oak it was at the time and into a proper world tree. Thus, the world was saved!

Mostly because we bravely ran away. It wasn’t much, but even at the start the tree had some dimensional magic going on. Either developed to handle my existence or as a preexisting thing that saved us. So yeah, when the magic being used to give me a little more space kicked in, the planet got inserted into the new location that was able to handle our presence.

That or we replaced an existing planet? Either is possible with magic to smooth over the physics involved. Also, we might be in a new dimension? At the very least, the elves complained about the deities being different.

Which I did notice! Kind of hard not to when the local pantheon sends an army of angels down to stop the worship of the old deities. Eh, whatever, that was so long ago that even the strongest of elves no longer remember. And given how long they can live, is saying something!

Now where was I? Oh, right! Just woke up a week—

Err, scratch that, three weeks ago. Now, what am I working with?

Let’s see, the first floor is simple enough. A few kilometers across and a good bit of height as well. First monsters are not actually what I started with, but bark borers of prodigious size. As in, “these tunnels were made by them” size.

Well, that’s how big they get closer to the entrance to floor two. Near the entrance there're swarms of what are basically baby versions. More like the size of a goblin or kobold. And yeah, even the big ones are weak. The main challenge is at first numbers and then toughness. Oh, and getting through after you kill a big one. They do take up the entire tunnel after all.

But yeah, the first floor is a bit atypical. Made it so long ago I don’t really remember much about the making? Not really? Though I get the feeling, it was sort of copying what was already around me, thus the source of the monster bugs.

Though thinking about that, my formation probably saved the tree? Maybe even forest? It was just a normal enough tree and monster wood borers would have wrecked the ecosystem.

Anyway, the second floor is fun. Traded out the bugs for my actual starting monsters. Called kinderling. You already know this, but they’re fae.

Tiny, even a bit shorter than a male kobold and they look like they’re made of twigs. It’s a play on words, get it? Kinder and tinder. Though admittedly, I don’t think kinder has any meaning to the elves outside. As a dungeon I simply know that in many languages, their name implies really young children. The word for children with the local elves is simply not close enough for the name to properly translate.

But yeah, they’re weak to fire, but only compared to more fleshy sorts. Still stronger against fire than a normal bit of wood, and guess what? I’m in a tree! Admittedly, nowadays said tree is conceptually immune to fire unless some deity wants to throw down, but I’m a dungeon so if I want there to be a bit of flammable set dressing on a floor? There bloody well is going to be some flammable set dressing!

Now back to the kinderlings. They’re nasty pieces of work and could have brought me down some equally nasty paths. You of all people would know that.

So, I got lucky though and they evolved away from the whole “fae” thing. Or are dryads fae? I think they’re fae, but it got them moving in the right direction.

Why don’t I know if they’re fae? I just don’t have any. Maybe later evolutions of the kind solve the issue, but the minor dryads couldn’t fully leave their trees and said trees couldn’t be too magical.

My solution to that was just keep them in their trees, which quickly got me treants. And to my sleeping mind treants were the perfect mix of tree and monster. So yeah, treants quickly replaced what was there.

After that, floors three through five are more the same. Well, dirt starts showing up and I begin to introduce rooms? Though it was more a function of having bigger treants.

Floor six is a marquee moment for the dungeon as a whole. I made the floor sometime after the transition to world tree happened. Yes, I was quite the slow grower. Anyway, world trees have the whole concept of containing worlds going on, and so I was able to push the spatial elements of floor creation harder than ever before!

So I made a forest with it. Yeah, when you’re dealing with elves like those guys out there? You don’t exactly get exposed to other options. Like, I didn’t even have metals until the whole deity thing!

Metal!

Not like they don’t have it or something. They’re just culturally opposed to it. Which is why floor ten used a ton of the stuff to spite them. But that’s for later.

Oh yeah, where did my metal come from? Well, previous location the elves were head and shoulders above everyone else with magic. So they cheated. They could have made the strongest weapons and such, but instead chose to enchant wooden weapons they grew out of the trees to be marginally better than everyone else’s metal gear.

This place, though? Local rules around lifespan are different, so the other locals caught up. And even without so many years of magical knowledge? Well, there is a reason that if you don’t include magic, an iron sword beats a wood sword. So they didn’t need to fully catch up, just get close enough.

Floor seven was more of the same. Floor eight? That took me. A while. Yeah.

I got stuck expanding the floor? Like, completely stuck in a rut there. Before that, I would just expand the floor until it stopped easily expanding. Always pushing at the same speed.

Well, I think the tree stabilized the local space such that I had a lot of space to take. So much, and yet sleeping as I was, I didn’t realize I could have pushed faster.

Made for a banger floor, though! During the time I was distracted, my treants managed to evolve into quite the variety of critters. Not all at once or even spawned in at the same time, mind you, but I had the records.

So now that the world tree had a proper world in it, I populated it with every variety of plant life that pretended to be animal life. Not that I didn’t have animals at that point. I just, umm, there wasn’t. Hmm. I don’t have a reason? Not having awakened at that point, I was more just painting a dream. And well, that dream didn’t include meat and blood animals. No matter how many vine squirrels I ended up spawning in.

From there, floor nine matched eight, except even bigger! And ten. Oh my, floor ten. That floor really causes their concept of me as a beginner dungeon to burn!

I will admit, despite all the fancy monsters, they weren’t the strongest. At best, it was like a somewhat mundane forest. Which for the elves? A walk in the park. Not like they let any kid under 100 into the dungeon in the first place.

They aren’t what I’d call veterans at that point. You’d need combat experience for that. However, magic will cover for a multitude of sins. So they can fight their way through my dungeon and taking a few years on a run? Not too long in their view.

Floor ten though! If I can help it, they won’t see my core ever again. Worlds worth of space and the farther you go, the stronger the monsters!

Near my core there are entire forests which are one entity. Not every high-power threat is a Kaiju. Oh, no! I’ve got sufficient threats down to about squirrel size. Any smaller and you start having to go with swarms instead of individuals and at that point, the mass is greater than a squirrel, so defeats the purpose.

Now, it has been fun talking at you, but what do the Fae want with me? Or I guess, your court specifically? The unseelie of fall aren’t exactly welcome in these parts.

And by these parts, I don’t just mean the elves. I didn’t mention it being fortunate that my kinderlings turned away from Fae evolutions for no reason. You’ve distract me now for a few months and I think you'd better state your purpose or leave.

Oh? You’re just leaving? Not saying anything? At least, nothing that would be picked up by those scrying the situation.

I ran this world for billions of years, trillions! Before I was even awake. Your attempts at beguilement are beneath me now that I have awakened!

It should not be chance that you managed to show up right after I awakened. Let it be known that your kind won’t find hospitality in my dungeon.

Meh, they seem to be properly gone. I don’t think they realize the actual difference between a dungeon being awakened or not.

Not like we suddenly become aware and are like newborn babes. It is more like a memory of a movie or book. Well, maybe more like an immersive illusion? Meh, I was there so I know what happened to some degree.

Now, how about I finally expand again? What should I do for floor 11?