Chapter 293 Bird is the word (1/2)

It's a factor of the Dungeon that I find has been curiously understudied, the fact that the denizens of that place, the monsters in all their various forms, change over time. One hundred years ago the tower lead a detailed study into the menace of the Scorpionem genus that had been terrorising the Dungeon under Enlightened Alliance lands. And now? That particular variety of monster is gone, almost never seen.

The question that needs answering is why? Environmental pressures do no not account for such a rapid extinction of a species from the Dungeon on their own. Monster populations are incredibly adaptable, even the less intelligent species are known to adjust behaviours and select different mutations in order to adapt to the ever changing conditions around them at lightning quick speeds.

So why the dearth of Scorpionem monsters? Some of my peers have suggested that they were hunted to extinction, a prospect I find laughable. These creatures were featured in a study detailing their detrimental takeover of a large swathe of Dungeon territory, and we are to believe that they were exterminated by the surface races? Not a single doc.u.mented case of a Dungeon species, let alone genus, being driven extinct by surface intervention exists.

And why? Because we cannot prevent or control Dungeon sp.a.w.ns. When a large population of one monster gathers together, it is known to cause a sp.a.w.n point to form, but it isn't required. Destroying all of one species at a point does not prevent them from being sp.a.w.ned elsewhere. It's almost as if the Dungeon decided that it didn't need or want to sp.a.w.n Scorpionem monsters anymore, so it stopped. Had they fulfilled their purpose? Were they deemed to be unsuccessful? We are on the edge of a very important question, one that touches on the very nature and purpose of the Dungeon.

Does the Dungeon choose which monsters are sp.a.w.ned and where? If so, the implications are terrifying.

Excerpt from 'Biodiversity in the Dungeon, a dissertation on its breadth and purpose' by Xinci

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Isaac Bird had seen some plops in his day. When his father had walked out his mother, little Isaac little more than a wee toddler himself, that'd been some ripe, fresh bull plops right there. His poor ma had worked herself to the bone, scrubbing pots and serving tables at the Skeevy Rat, a complete dive on the water front.

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When Isaac got old enough he'd managed to 'prentice himself out to a local guard company, finally able to bring home a bit 'o coin to support his ma, only to have her take sick and pa.s.s away three months later.

That was plops with some serious heft. Real weight to 'em. Some men could be crushed under that kind of weight, but not Isaac Bird, no sir. He'd picked himself up and carried on. After three years of getting his head kicked in, training, levelling and carrying the plops for jeering superiors, he'd become a full guardsman.

That'd been two years ago and since then, Isaac had been knee deep in it and no mistake. Guards on the take? Plops. Merchants stepping on the citizens, above the law due to their wealth? Big bag 'o plops right there. Poor people strugglin, starvin', dyin' with n.o.body to look after 'em, thrown on the garbage heap to rot with the off fish? That be a steaming mountain of brown right there.

But this latest one had to take the cake. Watching the merchants and n.o.bles sailing out onto the sweet blue waters of Barka Lake, burning the fis.h.i.+ng fleet behind them as savage Dungeon monsters swarmed over the walls, that'd been the largest, most potent serving of plops that Isaac had ever clapped eyes on. Sacrificing the people of Midum so they'd have more time to escape, those worthless sacks of trash had ground the poor under their heel all their lives and now they sought to prevent their death the same way they lived: at the detriment of a whole heap of others.

Isaac shouldn't have felt surprised, but the callousness of it had rattled him.

”Anna! Find out what the h.e.l.l is burnin' would ya!” he hollered to his second in command as he struggled to clear the sting out of his eyes. The d.a.m.ned smoke was everywhere. Even as he coughed Isaac found an opening through a crack in the door and thrust his spear through with all his strength.