Silva is approaching some adventurers on the far side of Wildwood, so I have the rest of the forest to myself. I've been itching to create something new and fresh. I've grown tired of watching the adventurers traipse through woodland environments, and want to see some proper dungeon crawling.

  The Wildwood is vast enough to house a multitude of small ruins like the one I placed within Swarm Forest--and with this space, I can create something larger. I'll need to keep the surface footprint fairly contained. Silva will be very upset if I go back on my word about killing the plants, after all.

  A design forms in my head as I stare down at the forest. Yes, a multi floored gauntlet, modeled to resemble a religious complex. A dungeon within a dungeon!

  I move my focus to the ground level, and begin clearing space. I'm careful with the plants. Mana is spent alarmingly fast as I relocate and maintain the plants without disrupting their health. I have the mana for it, but it's a slow process.

  Once the plants are safely out of the way I begin construction.

  The temple starts with a dilapidated chamber, walls torn apart by implied erosion and the aggressive growth of the forest around it. The room is marked with a mixture of rubble and plants reclaiming the structure. There's only one thing of note in this first broken room--a large stone door, opened via a keyhole made from green tinted metal.

  Creating the green metal for the keyhole was as simple as referencing the Adventurer's Guild, using the hinges on doors as a starting point. Some mana and a desire for the metal to appear green like the forest did the job.

  I'll name it emertal. A blend of emerald and metal, which I think fits.

  Anyway, refocusing on that locked door to the temple.

  There is no key to this door, at least not yet, but I plan to create several keys fit to the lock. These keys will be hidden away in various ruins throughout the Wildwood. Adventurers will have to spend extra time finding a key before they can enter the dungeon. That detour will give me a little extra mana.

  Once through the door, they'll enter the temple proper.

  I create a lengthy corridor with a forked path. This passage is by no means well maintained, but there are no crumbling walls or piles of debris. The only thing of note in the corridor is a single tripwire connected to an arrow trap. The trap is positioned to hit someone in the legs, serving more as a warning than a deadly hazard.

  The corridor's right path leads to a dead end room. This one is smaller than the entry chamber, and modeled after a study. An old looking desk made from highbark wood sits in one corner, while an empty bookshelf occupies the other. A destroyed bookshelf and an equally smashed chair clutter the floor.

  An incentive for adventurers rests beneath the desk: a treasure chest, composed of wood and emertal. Inside I place a pile of bronze coins, alongside a few healing potions. This loot is just an appetizer. Real goodies will be further inside the temple.

  Now, I obviously need monsters if I'm making this dungeon within a dungeon, but what kind?

  Using one of the animals I've created won't work. They behave just like any other animal, and won't defend the loot or temple itself. I could create something with the instincts to act as a dungeon monster, but then I'm just creating a species that lives to die to adventurers. That just doesn't sit right with me. I suppose I could create constructs... though, they might get expensive to replace.

  I feel completely stumped! There has to be an elegant solution to this.

  My gaze rests on the forest surrounding the temple. I could create a plant to help out, but that runs into the same issues of morality as a traditional animal. If only I could create something that wouldn't have to die or feel pain while serving its role. Kind of like how mycelium survives even after the mushrooms above are plucked away.

  Wait a minute, mushrooms? Mycelium? Now it feels so obvious!

  I'm going to create a new kind of monster. Something that's cost effective, smart enough to carry out assigned tasks, and won't be harmed even if it fights adventurers over and over again! Of course I need someplace for it to live.

  Beneath the area where I'm building the temple I carve out a new natural looking cave. A tiny stream trickles through the chamber. Very little false sunlight is provided through a tiny crack in the ceiling. Rich soil fills the cavern floor, rife with nutrients for a growing fungus. This will be the home of my mushroom creature.

  Time to make the monster.

  Mana flows like threads, coiling around itself to create invisible roots. I focus on the traits I need from the mushroom monster: intelligence, painless injury, efficient regrowth. The fungal matter coalesces gradually into a small toadstool. It's barely a few centimeters tall. One look beneath the soil's surface is enough to see most of the mana went into creating a strong network of mycelium below it. I peer down at it in fascination, watching as two glowing green eyes open just beneath the cap of the mushroom.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  I watch as the tiny mushroom creature starts expanding. Mycelium threads burrow throughout the cavern. The visible body of the mushroom grows, expanding until it stands nearly a meter tall. The thing grows pudgy and wide as it enlarges. To my surprise, its cap has a vaguely crown shaped growth atop it.

  This monster... I think I'll call her Mycelady.

  ~

  Over the past few hours I've fed mana to Mycelady in an effort to grow her to a usable size. She's now a large fungal mass, her eyes and crown looking a tad small for her body which has reached a full two meters in height. For her sake I will not detail her width.

  Mycelady isn't designed to talk, but I can communicate with her via fungus. Planting specific kinds of fungal matter tells her what to do, and thus far I've managed to get her to produce three different types of 'minions.' These humanoid mushrooms are not actually independent beings, but simply an extension of Mycelady.

  Merul are the smallest of her minions. They resemble a mushroom with stubby legs and arms, capable of using tools and weapons with their thick mitten shaped hands. These will make up the majority of the temple's defenders.

  Biglete are a larger mushroom, their size imposing and backed up by impressive strength. They're very similar to the merul in terms of shape. Biglete will be the tough units used in deeper areas of the temple.

  Wizwort are the final minion in Mycelady's arsenal. These minions are different, in the sense they serve as conduits for mana. Merul and Biglete are incapable of channeling mana. Wizwort are also taller than merul, but quite fragile. They're not going to be front line fighters.

  With these minions serving as the temple's defenders, I can get back to work.

  I return to the temple's study, and decide for a meager amount of loot the adventurers must fight a single merul. The little guy will be armed with a broken table leg. Hopefully this will help the adventurers understand what's coming deeper in the temple.

  Now I move back to the branching corridor. I add a room down the other path, this one meant to lead further in. The room is far larger than the two before it. Its ceilings reach high up, sporting stone grating that lets in a respectable amount of light. An empty fountain dominates the center of the chamber. Benches line the walls, some broken and others intact.

  I make sure to scatter coins throughout the fountain, most of them copper, but a few I make a shiny metal I think is silver and a few are gold. I'm not certain the metals are what I say they are, but they appear to be copper, silver, and gold as far as I can tell from their appearance.

  For obstacles, a group of four merul lie in wait. Mycelady decides their exact positions when not defending from an intruder, but they all wield some form of wooden debris.

  Moving on to the back of the room, I carve stairs leading deeper into the ground.

  I make a corridor much like the one above. This one is a bit neater, with less dust and stray rocks littering its floors. It gets a trap much like the first corridor did, and it also branches into two paths. I start by making the dead end room at the end of the first path.

  This room is meant to be a sort of living quarters. Wooden beds line the walls, bunk beds made to fit merul proportions. The room is serviceable despite the implied age of the structure. Mycelady is given instructions to have the merul loiter in this room. I manage to get her to understand what merul are meant to pretend to do here, and soon enough she has several merul 'sleeping' on the bunk beds.

  To finish this room I add a chest with some decent loot. Silver coins, with healing potions and a lantern made from lantern stone. These should serve as more enticing loot for would-be adventurers.

  I move back to the hallway. This time I follow the passage to its end, and add the next main room. This one is far larger than the chamber with the fountain above. I model it after a cathedral, spacious vaulted ceilings and pillars of stone. Wooden pews fill the space while a huge mural of myself dominates the room. This one depicts me surrounded by a variety of forest plants and animals.

  Mycelady is quick to understand when I explain the merul should sit and linger in this chamber. Now she has the merul population moving between this worship chamber and the bunk room. I'm pleased with the simulated life the little mushrooms are pretending to live.

  I also direct Mycelady to create two biglete guards. They're equipped with wooden armor and stone maces, molded to fit their hands by my own design. The big guys stand watch over the cathedral perpetually.

  As for loot, I place a chest beneath the mural. It's the most lucrative reward yet. Gold coins fill the chest to the brim! I'm curious what the adventurers will think when they find this. Is gold even valuable in this world? I sure hope so, otherwise this will be an underwhelming reward.

  I bring the temple deeper with another corridor. This one has no traps, but it too has multiple paths. And like before, one of them is a dead end.

  This dead end room is a washroom, or at least it is implied to be. I make it as small as the study upstairs. The chamber gets a portion of it sunken into the floor as if meant to be filled with water. A functional drain with a pipe leading down into a tank below sits at the bottom of the container. I add a faucet, but no water will flow through it. A circular hole in a cordoned off section of the room serves as a stand in for a toilet.

  Mycelady has the merul come here as if to bathe in the non-existent water, and I am pleased with it. It gives the temple a more dynamic feel if the monsters move through it.

  A single lockbox with some copper coins is all I put in this washroom for treasure, hiding it in the toilet hole. Hopefully whoever finds it thinks the meager reward is worth the slightly unpleasant connotations of where they're sticking their hand.

  And... I'm out of mana.

  There's still more to do, but for now I'll have to leave the temple sealed. Hopefully in the future this place will attract adventurers in search of wealth and new challenges. The treasure I'm planning on placing at the bottom of the temple is sure to shake things up.