==========

  [Dungeon]

  I had been looking through the store for a while now, searching for the perfect boss whilst regaining my mana. I had yet to level up again, but I was close.

  Playing around with search terms and filters had given me an appreciation for how much the store had to offer. There were hundreds of thousands of monsters within my price range, and presumably millions more outside of it. A seemingly unending catalogue of options to help customise my dungeon.

  At the moment I had filtered by natural monsters and mana enhanced ones, thus excluding all the pure magic monsters and mechanical and countless other ones. Then I had filtered down for nature-attuned monsters, cutting the list down to somewhere in the ninety thousand range.

  I needed more refinement.

  So, what do I want in a boss monster, I thought to myself?

  Big, it needs to be big. Big… and intimidating. That grandiose feeling of staring up at a giant. That’s what I want them to feel.

  I was about to instruct the menu to narrow down to that choice when I felt a disturbance, something had entered the dungeon.

  Happy

  Yes, another deer, I thought, moving my presence upwards, through the floor, until I reached the entrance.

  It wasn’t a deer, nor a mouse, or any other small critter. It wasn’t a wolf or anything else I recognised. Certainly, nothing I had encountered so far.

  It was big, bigger than the wolves or the alligators. Bigger than most of the kobolds for sure. It stood on four legs like the wolves and looked quite similar, save for the glossy white coat and long fluffy tail. Well, a formerly white coat, the bloody gashes had painted it in a rather macabre crimson. It had a softness to it, unlike the wolves that seemed more aggressive, yet I knew without a shadow of a doubt it was a more fearsome predator that the wolves.

  What injured it though?

  I found out moments later, when a short stocky green creature ran through the entrance on its short stumpy legs, screaming out a war cry.

  “Hyaaaaaa…” it screamed, a short stubby blade in its hands held high as it charged forwards.

  The cat, I now knew what it was called from the store, caught sight of the creature, and ran, limping badly on an injured leg.

  The creature followed, ignoring my beautiful floor, and majestic work, intent only on the cat. I felt offended.

  How dare he! How dare he besmirch my illustrious work, my precious dungeon.

  That was it, I had decided. He will DIE!!!

  Since the cat was a simple creature, I knew I could control it somewhat. Guiding it, I managed to get it to weave through the trees.

  Hopefully… Yes, he’s falling into my trap.

  Guiding the cat around the trees, had meant that the creature decided to take a short cut between them.

  With a whip like crack the branches shot out, lashing at the little green guy, wrapping around him and threatening to tear him apart.

  I felt the sweet kiss of victory hovering over me.

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  No…no, no, no, no, no… you can’t do that, you… The creature calmly slashed through the tree branches with his knife, cutting himself free. Landing deftly on his feet, he raced to catch up to the cat.

  I guided it down the stairs and onto the ground of floor two. If the trees didn’t work, then I would have to hope that the wolves of the second floor would do more.

  The cat seemed to relax in the rocky woodland, and although there was no snow, unlike its natural habitat, it seemed like a good fit. Perhaps, if it survived, I would make it into the biggest threat on this floor.

  But for now, I had a little green monster to slaughter.

  ==========

  [Marrok]

  The stinging pain of the branch cutting through his flesh brought a smile to his face. Marrok breathed it in, loving it. He cut himself free, landing lightly on his feet.

  More cautious now, Marrok recognised that he had entered a dungeon. He had read about them before, in the books from the filthy races, perhaps it would solve all of his problems. If he and his band could raid the dungeon, train themselves on the monsters within, then perhaps, come summer, they would be the strongest band around. Able to add plenty more to his tally, securing his place as the most formidable Goblin ever.

  He shook his head, driving the distracting thoughts away. It wouldn’t do to get careless. Many, many things wanted to kill him in here, and he would have to defy them.

  The cat continued to run, limping badly. Marrok smiled, he was close, it was only a matter of time before the cat succumbed and he would be there to finish it off. Dungeon or not, nothing would get in the way of his hunt.

  He pushed through the grasses, following the cat by sound and smell, the tall grass blocked his vision. But that wasn’t a problem for a goblin, and Marrok was the best.

  He emerged from the grasses on a set of stairs. Wooden and carved, they descended a few metres, before turning back on themselves. Marrok took careful steps, padding down with light feet, careful and observant, traps could be anywhere after all. With only one working arm he knew a pitfall could be the end of him, climbing out would be nigh on impossible.

  The second floor of the dungeon was much more interesting, emerging onto the canopy of a woodland. With such dense foliage, Marrok had no idea how high up he was, the ground was completely obscured.

  A few metres ahead of him a tree from the emergent layer, stood out, its top gracing the ceiling, brushing against it like a tender caress.

  He made for it, certain that that was the intended path. He was right, stairs circling the trunk led to the floor, which he could now see was a very long way down.

  Fear was weakness though, and Marrok had no weakness, he wasn’t afraid. Quickly making his way down to the ground, he set after the cat, following the blood trail and scent through the level.

  ==========

  [Dungeon]

  With unerring accuracy, the creature followed the cat through the grasses. Grasses that were taller than it! How it could do so, without being able to see, I hadn’t a clue, but it could, and there was seemingly nothing I could make the cat do to hide its trail.

  The creature seemed more cautious now, taking his time and observing everything. Paying me the attention I deserved.

  I will still kill him.

  Reaching the second floor, it became apparent I wouldn’t be able to shake him.

  Giving up, I directed the cat towards the wolves. Surely the green guy wouldn’t be able to defeat a whole pack of wolves. Right?

  They encountered each other in a small clearing, next to the stream.

  He kept the stream to his back, thus preventing the wolves from surrounding him. With them all in his vision he waited, patiently.

  At some unseen signal he charged forwards, stabbing into one of their necks and using its body to shield one side of himself.

  The rest of the fight was a flurry, blood flying, fur and skin being rend from the flesh and the howls and cries of the participants.

  I watched, agog.

  Come on, come on… I thought to myself, mentally coaxing the wolves to win.

  It turned out he was too tough for the wolves. Despite having been bitten and clawed and battered down by the wolves, he hadn’t collapsed and died. It shocked me really, the ground was stained with blood and yet he was still standing, still fighting. He had one working arm, one working leg and probably half his blood left and he was fighting with only a small knife and leaving my wolves in piles on the floor.

  How tough was he?

  When the fight ended, he was breathing heavily, he made to take after the cat, but his legs failed him and he stumbled, falling to the floor.

  Seemingly thinking better of it, he turned to go, marching back through the floor towards the exit.

  What…no, how dare you… right, I’ll block you in.

  But it seemed that I couldn’t block him in, something connected him to the surface, and no matter what I tried I couldn’t manipulate anything between him and the surface, I could change the deeper floors, I could do everything except modify anything between him and the exit.

  Arghhhh, I growled, stewing in my frustration.

  That blasted, disrespectful… God damn… mark my words little green man, I will kill you, and I will enjoy it. You had better come back, or I will find a way to tear myself out of the ground, fly my mountain across the world and sit it atop of you.

  Arghhhh

  I went off to sulk.