A small creature appears in front of Dee and I. It just stands there surrounded by the white nothing all around us.

It looks like a smaller baby form of Groot, with thin branches for arms, and a stump head, two beady black eyes stare at nothing in front of it.

After I’ve studied the “twigling” for a few moments, another screen appears in front of me.

 

“You could have waited for me to finish.” Dee says, a slight frown on her face.

“I don’t want to spend an hour here.” I respond, shrugging.

Dee crosses her legs and seems to sit down midair, resting on a floating chair she created. She pouts at me before turning her head away from me with a “hmph. I don’t talk that much.”

“Uhuh. Right.” I say with a teasing smile.

I look over the options I now have in front of me, unsure what to choose. “So what should I do next?”

“Do whatever you want. You obviously don’t like listening to me.” Dee says, continuing to pout.

“Dee... “ I start feeling just a little bad. Just a little. “You know I don’t mean it. I’m just a bit of a bitch sometimes.”

Dee nods. “Yeah, you are.”

“Hey!”

“But I still like you. You’re… different” She says, sounding strangely serious. “Choose Underground if you like mushrooms and being edgy. Forest if you want a more peaceful race that has plenty of resources. Jungle if you want strange variations in their evolution. Ruins if you want them to become more- well, human. I’m not sure exactly how Plains will effect them, but I wouldn’t suggest it. Not enough challenge and too… plain.” She finishes lamely. “I’d suggest Jungle if you appreciate a challenge.”

I follow her advice, partly to appease her.

As soon as I choose Jungle, the white nothingness around us shifts.

The first thing I notice is a river winding slowly forward in front of me, then small fern-like plants come into view.

I jump as trees burst out of the ground around me, shooting up into the sky. I watch and listen in fascination as the sounds of a jungle surround me. A bird flies from a branch above me, flying into the sky and out of my sight. The ground around me is shady as the leaves from the trees block out most of the sun, but I can faintly see a blue sky above me.

A large ray of sunshine points at the spot where the twigling sits. Now ten more twiglings surround the one I’d created.

Finally, I look over to the dungeon core which is floating in between me and Dee, as I do a blue screen pops up.

 

“You got an Expanded Dungeon package! Lucky!” Dee squeals in excitement as I tell her about the message.

“I have to admit, this isn’t what I expected when I got the dungeon core. Are all dungeons like this?” I ask, walking forward to examine the Twiglings.

Dee giggles at my question, “Oh heavens, no. This is a Player Dungeon. Nothing like the world dungeons that recently came to your world.”

I gently touch the twigling in front of me. Its head turns to study me with curiosity, but otherwise stays still.

“After I start the dungeon, what am I supposed to do?” I ask, smiling gently at the curious expression on the Twiglings face.

Dee taps her cheek in thought before she lights up with an idea, “You’re like a god.” She explains “You can physically come into this world and interact with it, you can send messages to them telepathically, or you can physically take over their body, interacting with the world like one of them. Then you can spend Dungeon Gold to upgrade the dungeon or forcefully evolve your starting race.”

“I can see how something like this might take over someone’s life, especially if they get to act like a god. How will I ever get the motivation to go back to school?” I ask, chuckling slightly at the idea of going back to my boring, normal school.

“You can take the dungeon with you to school, and still interact with it.” Dee says, tilting her head, almost as if she is questioning how I can be so ignorant.

“Oh?” I ask, stepping back from the Twiglings. “I suppose it’s time to get this show on the road. [Start Dungeon]”

 

***

Twigling

I watch the goddess as she walks up to poke me. Where am I? I don’t know. I don’t know anything. Except… my goddess. How could I possibly not know her? The goddess says something to her companion that I can’t hear. But I don’t mind, all I care about is being in the presence of such a holy being.

My brothers and sisters watch with curiosity as I interact with our goddess. Unfortunately, my time of serenity only lasts for a few moment. Words of power come from the goddess’s mouth and the world changes around us as everything changes. The world becomes real. A sense of loss comes to me as I realize that my goddess and her companion are gone.

Now my family and I are surrounded by a strange world that I don’t understand. My family looks to me for leadership, as I have obviously been chosen by the goddess.

I don’t know what to do.

But the goddess chose me, so I must try.

I look to the tree next to me, sensing kinship with it. I walk up to it and touch it with my head. Slowly, I send it a request for protection in its branches.

As it says yes, I order my family to find food.

My family begins to move, preparing for this strange new world. As they do, I look to the spot where the goddess stood. I will remember her for my entire life.

 

***

Elena

After I command the dungeon to start, there is a shift in the dungeon as everything seems to come to life.

I look at Dee only to notice that she is now see-through, like a ghost. I bring my own hand up to see that it too is see-through.

“This really wasn’t what I was expecting.” I say again, putting my hand down to watch the Twiglings as they move around. I watch with curiosity as the one I’d touched earlier begins to lead the group.

“Honestly, this is the first time I’ve ever seen a Player Dungeon.” Dee says, watching the Twiglings with as much curiosity as I am. “They are incredibly rare, only used by the rich. This is super exciting!”

I glare at Dee. “This is your first time seeing a Player Dungeon? Why’d you give me so much advice then?”

She smiles guiltily, “I studied them back on my home world.”

I frown but ignore her in favor of the screen that appears in front of me.

 

For now, I choose not to mess with any of the options. My sister has a soccer game later today and I can’t spend too much time in here. “How long will it take for the Twiglings to do things like evolve?”

“Dungeons are weird constructs.” Dee says, moving closer to the dungeon core that now sits in my palm. “When you leave this dungeon, time will move forward in here at a much faster rate. But then, when an event happens, time will freeze until you come back.” She shrugs.

“[Leave Dungeon]” I say, and the world seemingly collapses around us.

I arrive back in my basement, where Kai’lenal is waiting for us. He is sitting on a box, calmly sharpening his sword.

Dee pops into existence a moment later, she flies over to Kai’lenal and rests on his shoulder, he ignores her completely and keeps sharpening his blade.

What an interesting relationship.

I hurry upstairs and grab some lunch. My sisters game later that day was surprisingly normal after all that I had been through. For the rest of the day, no monsters attack me, none of my friends get kidnapped, no one started shooting at me and I finally get a full nights sleep.

The next morning I wake up bright and early for school. Kai’lenal had disappeared at some point in the night, but Dee doesn’t seem to be too worried, so I don’t spend too much of my attention on it.

I am kinda tempted to just skip classes, after all I have been dealing with villains and world-shaking events. But my parents would kill me.

So I suffer through the Monday of school, as soon as I arrive at the school, I realize that it wouldn’t have been too out of place to have skipped. Half of the students in the school weren’t there.

Rose, Damien and Blake sit with me at lunch. It’s interesting to note how the social dynamic shifted in less than a week.

Blake and I used to sit alone at our own table, now I have more friends. Weird.

Rose pulls out a box from her backpack and puts it in front of us, she opens the box up, showing the contents. Inside sit two masks that look the same. Both completely black and covering the top half of the face, feather come out of the top in a fan and a large beak covers the nose.

“Fancy.” I say as I look over the masks.

“These are the masks we’ll be wearing?” Blake asks with a defeated tone.

“Of course. You were the ones who offered to come with us after all.” Rose points out.

“This is still so strange.” Damien comments, stabbing his food with his fork.

I nod, “Yeah, I get that. I mean, we don’t even have superhero names.” I point a finger at Rose. “We’ll call you The Dagger.” then I point at the two boys. “You two will be the sidekicks, and I’ll be The Paladin.”

“You have a terrible naming sense.” Blake says, shaking his head.

Rose taps her chin with a spoon. “I don’t know, I kinda like it.” She says grinning at the boys.

Damien chuckles, “I mean, it’s kinda accurate. Sidekick number two.” He says to Blake.

“Who said that you get to be sidekick number one?” Blake responds, making himself look a little bigger to try and intimidate Damien.

“All in favor of Damien being number one?” I ask.

Everyone except Blake raises their hands.

“The motion has passed. Blake will hereby be called sidekick number two.” I smile cheekily at Blake.

He just shakes his head in disappointment.

“You shouldn’t have insulted my magnificent naming sense.”