Dungeon? This Tree? Why Don't You Join Me for Lunch? (Dungeon Core)
Chapter 29: Life has to go on.

Chapter 29: Chapter 29: Life has to go on.

Chapter 29: Life has to go on.

The tree was finally in full bloom. Doomed to lose all the leaves and the blossoms when the snow fell.

I was curled up in a ball and destroying a bowl cake. What’s a bowl cake, one might ask?

It’s a mug cake... with extra chocolate. I told myself the recipe again and again, trying to calm down.

First you put in the flour, then you put in the baking soda, not too much, or else you get a stomachache. Then you dump in some sugar, salt, mix it all up, and then you dump in the milk, and of course... the giant spoon of cocoa cream.

It was bad for me.

Tasty...

But bad.

I still spooned another spoonful into my mouth. It was perfectly baked. I had to leave it in the microwave rune for three minutes. For a bowl, one minute is never enough.

"Sylvan?" I looked up from my cocoon.

There she was, Anne.

With something that looked like a rooftop brick but was actually made out of marshmallows.

"Let me try some of that!"

She pointed at the bowl cake; I pointed at the strange thing she was holding.

The exchange was made. Soon, she was sitting near my blanket.

"You know," she said, as she took the clean spoon I offered her. "When my mama died, I was very sad."

I wanted to hug her but felt that she needed to tell this story. Still, I used one mana point and magicked a nice blanket with teddy bears around her.

She smiled.

"Thanks!" she chirped.

I smiled back.

"But I still had Grannie Almira and Papa! And then, when papa died, I cried a lot. I thought we were going to starve!"

Which was the logical train of thought in our times. After all, no matter how strong of a woman Almira was, women could not hold a stable job.

No, they were paid to do chores. And in some cases, not even that.

"But Grannie Almira came to me with a hoe one day, and told me: Anne, the earth is waiting to feed us! Come on, don’t make it wait!"

Anne smiled one more time, then took another spoonful of the treat. I stuffed my mouth with the marshmallow.

My eyes were stinging.

"And it was fun! First, we combed the earth, then we placed seeds inside of it, then we watered it, then we feed it with our cow’s poop!"

I blinked. Wait, didn’t they make compost first? Oh, that harvest couldn’t have been all that good...

"While we waited for our plants to grow, the garden still fed us! We ate nettle soup every day!" I smiled. Remembering another little girl who loved stinging nettle soup. "And then, when the earth gave us squash and potatoes, tomatoes and cucumbers, cabbage and onions!" Anne said, listing them how she liked them, and not how they really became ready to be harvested. "We had enough to make pickled food! And you know what?"

I just imagined Anne helping Grannie Almira making pickles, or sauerkraut, or canned tomatoes.

I decided to play along. Widened my eyes, poked my head out of my blanket.

"What?" I asked, as if this little girl was going to share the secret of the universe with me.

"We didn’t starve! And we helped out! Donated food to the church! Grannie was right! The earth really wanted to feed us!"

And she did.

I gently untangled myself from my blanket. So as to not scare Anne.

What was I doing here, in the roots of a perfectly good dungeon which could feed thousands, no, millions, when the world was at the brick of war?

When there were people starving?

"You know," I said, as I gave her what was left of the strange marshmallow roof-part thingy. "I have some things to do. Chat with you later!"

I ruffled her brown curls, stood up, and opened my system screen.

"Welcome, Dungeon Core Sylvan! My name is Edda, and I am your system! What is the path you chose for this dungeon?

You have three options:

The path of the Last Stand:

You are a dungeon which creates mobs. You will die before you let the mortals harvest you for your treasure! The only way anyone is going to conquer you is to burn down your tree!

The path of the Merchant:

You do not care about the conflict which goes around you! Gold makes the world go round! You want more gold, more mana, more, more, more!

The only thing standing in your way to becoming the richest being in the world is the lack of trade routes.

But even that can be arranged!

And the Path of the Summoner..."

"Edda, please, none of that," I did not know what the path of the Summoner could have been, but I did not want to find out, either. "I chose the Path of the Gardner!"

For a second, I saw red system warnings. Still, I waited. I waited as Edda apparently consulted the World System, which was working for the World Dungeon.

I heard a voice in my head. An old one, a mean one.

"Look here you," I told it, for I could not make out its words. A sign that I was on the right track. Even if I did not know it. "It’s your job to make sure that all dungeons perform to the best of their capabilities! I want the Path of the Gardner! So, make it happen!"

Edda sent me another message, which read:

"Dungeon Core Lexus the Nymph, the Dungeon Core of the Garden of Nedrag, has already taken this Path! Chose another one!"

I snorted.

"That cheater knows nothing about gardening!" I yelled, but then blinked. "Then... is the Path of the Farmer free?"

What sort of dungeon would want it, I asked myself.

"Well..." Edda began, but I already began to scroll towards the quit section of the menu. If this system did not give me what I wanted, another will!

"Ok, ok! From today onwards, Sylvan the Nymph is the Dungeon Core of the Forest of Forget-Me-Nots, with the base being the Tree of Memories! His Path is the Path of the Farmer!"

I smiled.

"Good," I said, already thinking of where to make my compost piles...