There never was peace in the dungeon but even a creature with a 1 in intelligence can see that the tunnels are even more dangerous this last week. The people on the surface have been going crazy trying to find out what is causing this sudden change, but other than the mana in the dungeon being less pure then normal nothing has been found. That is why old man Griffer has been called out from retirement to investigate what is going on in the dungeon of Whisleton.

  “I know I might not be Guild Master anymore but my good friend Taffe is going to lead the 3rd expedition into the Eye of Dawn and this summoning seemed quite important so I came instead.” The 200 year old storm sage was wearing clothes that you would expect to see a peasant to be wearing and more than once he has been mistaken as such on his way to the Adventurers Guild HQ. “Ho Ho even in the city I can feel how ‘dirty’ the mana has gotten, casting in conditions like this would cost more mana for my large spells because I would have to purify the mana myself.”

  “So do you know what is causing all this madness?” asked Glen Goodwealth, the branch leader of Whistleton’s Merchants Guild, he was a bit nervous because he was one of the people that mistaken the old man as some simple commoner and to anger someone that strong is one of the few things he couldn’t run from.

  “Yes in fact I have found out what was wrong with the dungeon and it is quite the intriguing thing it is” Griffer stroked his beard as he thought about what was happening in the city. “You’re giving the dungeon your trash, yes? Well all the different mana signatures in the trash is overwhelming the dungeons ability to purify mana. Normally when this happens it would get worse and worse until the dungeon can’t spawn monsters and then the dungeon starves and dies.”

  “Then what is happening here, the dungeon hasn’t stopped spawning monsters?” said Arther who was the branch leader of the Delvers Guild, he has been checking the dungeon everyday and the spawn rate has not lowered and luckily it also hasn’t increased. The Delvers Guild leader has already been stressed out with all the deaths from noob parties and he hoped that something can be done to stop it.

  “The good and bad news is that this dungeon must have some intelligence because it has moved more of its attention towards purifying mana, but due to that its control over the monsters has lessened and they are now more similar to natural monsters.” he said before taking a drink from his glass of water finishing it and then without any motion summoned a rain cloud above his cup refilling it. “I do not know what will happen if this weakened control over the monster will get worse but if the mana situation gets worse then it most likely will.”

  “What should we do? Should we stop dumping waste into the dungeon?” Glen was truly afraid of the possible and looming disaster on the near horizon. If it meant dumping loads of his treasury on the problem to fix it then he would do it right away “The city will probably be disgusting for a month or so but it is better than having no city.”

  “No you can continue to dump it into the dungeon just start the construction of an actual sewer.” Griffer got up from the cloud he summoned and dusted off his rags, he looked at the two other men and said. “I will personally set up a Mage Guild in the city that will help me both monitor the dungeons conditions and research any possible solutions”

  The dumpster of a labyrinth that was the upper waste tunnels were very hard to navigate since there are many dead ends and it is easy to loop around walking in a circle. Skitter Nail was learning this the hard way for it is the fifth time had looped back to the dripper’s skeleton, but this time he will go around this path and through this pipe an– -. Nope back at the skeleton again, he began to curse madly in rodent tongue at the dead thing while kicking a rib which hurt him more than the bone.

  Bugs have already started to eat at the scattering of dead rats oblivious to the one who killed them, as Skitter Nail watched them he had an idea appear in his little skull. From the shadow of the skeletal remains a pale pink bolt of energy launched towards a bug but missed by a large amount, but even then the bug did not react. Walking out from his hiding spot Skitter Nail was wondering why didn’t the bugs do anything, like even their weird hearing things didn’t even twitch?

  Somewhere deep in his mind something was telling him that those are dungeon cleaners and that he shouldn’t attack them, but that part of his mind was so quiet that he almost didn’t hear it. He walked up to one of the bugs and picked it up, it did nothing, he then put the thing into his mouth and it still did nothing even when he bit down and killed it. He did feel that it did very very slightly get him closer to a level which meant he was still gaining from something that didn’t even fight back, a wicked smile grew on his ratty face.

  Skitter Nail went on a rampage both shooting mana bolts when he could and slashing and biting at the mindless bugs with the passion of a serial killer. He was so distracted with his gooey bloodbath that he didn’t hear the large thumping foot steps of multiple large creatures that soon rounded the same corner his pack once did. He looked at the 10 towering figures that had just appeared and they seemed as surprised as him, which was long enough to let him run into a small pipe which they definitely couldn’t follow him into.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Running deeper into the pipe he started to hear the sound of rushing water and it was not long before the pipe opened up to one of the main chamber rooms of the upper waste, they were there to connect other parts of the sewer to the main drainage system. The large room had dozens of pipes leading into it, all dripping water or other liquids into the large pit in the center that seemed to have no bottom. The room also had three tunnels leading out from it back into the trash covered tunnels he had just come from, or he hoped that they didn’t connect to the tunnel he came from since that would mean those big creatures could find him.

  He chose to go down one of the tunnels because even though he knows for sure that there is danger to be found in the tunnels, he has never been in the pipes for long and he definitely doesn’t trust the bottomless pit. Just like before Skitter Nail was getting lost in this maze of paths, but hope was not all lost as in this area the rats haven’t seen him kill other rats so they don’t hide from him. Using some loud and brave squeaks he had convinced about a dozen or so rats to come near him and then lead them back into the large chamber.

  With all of the rats gathered in front of him Skitter Nail screeched loudly and pointed at nothing behind them, they all looked back confused when they saw nothing but when they started to hear the sound of a rat dying they looked back to see him killing one of the rats in the back. Skitter Nail shot out mana bolts as fast as he could while also smashing a glass shard into a rat's skull, he was having so much fun killing the stupid rodents that he didn’t really care when they started to fight back. By the end of it all he had some scratches and bite marks but they did hurt that much as he got a notification from the system.

  [Title Gained]

  [True Monster]

  You have killed a noticeable amount of your own race for what? Fun? You are truly a monster. (+1 All Stats)

  Strength: 2 + 1

  Dexterity: 3 + 1

  Vitality: 1 + 1

  Fortitude: 2 + 1

  Will: 1 + 1

  Intelligence: 6 + 1

  Wisdom: 3 + 1

  Perception: 3 + 1

  Power like no other flowed through Skitter Nail’s body as he grew slightly larger and really more everything as some of his stats doubled in number. The now larger rat began to laugh at how much better he is than any other rat, there is only one thing he is missing for his big plan but that can wait until he gets another level or two. Skitter Nail got up from the floor that he fell down to during his laughing fit and began to truly get somewhere else then here.

  The worst part of the upper waste tunnels is that it doesn’t make any sense, like oh this large pipe hiding behind a pile of trash leads to a small room with nothing but a small wood box. What's the point of this? Nothing here makes sense which means it actually does make sense since if you know the pattern you can somewhat navigate the mindless pathways. Multiple times Skitter Nail had seen more of those very large creatures and he learned that they wouldn’t attack him if he was more than 10 feet from them.

  He did not attack them either even though a part of him is telling him to since he knows that he would die in such a fight against both larger and more numerous enemies. But he did fight every rat or dungeon cleaner he could find since they were always weak then him now getting him step by bloody step closer to a level up and not only that he felt with some more kills with mana bolt he could get a level in mage. The only problem he can really notice is that as time goes on the energy in the air is getting more and more uncontrollable and taking more time to refill his mp bar, Skitter Nail wonders if those two things might be related?

  [Mana Control Lv 1] Level Up!

  Well then maybe it is related since he just got a level in his mage skill, he still didn’t know what this skill did since it didn’t shoot anything like mana bolt but hey levels are always good even if he didn’t know what it did. The energy in the air that he now knew was mana seemed to stick to things like the walls, large piles of trash, and the flowing water that can be found in most rooms. All though he did feel a trail of a kind of different mana that led to a different room, so he followed it and it led to a large room that had a pile of half eaten bugs and rats in the center of room. Atop of the pile was the largest sludge dripper Skitter Nail had ever seen in his life and floating above its head were some glowing words made by the system.

  [Durgot the Sewer Glutton]

  [Floor I Boss]

  Skitter Nail did not know which of the rat gods that he had angered but he was really sorry and hoped once he died that he would go to rat heaven because he is not making it out of this fight alive. He could already see the rat angels coming down from cheesy gates to take him away from this dark cruel place he used to call home. Wait what is he thinking he won’t go out without a fight, bring it on you fat ugly lizard it’s time to see if you can actually hurt me unlike the last lizard I fought!