After getting over the initial shock of where I was I took a few minutes to calm down and collect my thoughts. It's a good thing I didn't select any of the really nasty options, not that there were any really nasty options. The average human from earth freaks out at the sight of a bug. What are they going to do when they find an abandoned mine teeming with snakes. Never mind that, if anyone actually makes it to the first boss and lives they'll probably call in the military to nuke my location. If the nuke wasn't bad enough, assuming they do manage to punch a whole into my first floor with it, a billion cubic meters of space compressed into 1000 cubic meters being suddenly and violently allowed to expand to full size is not gonna be good for anyone.
All right calm down, you can't control how others react so there is no point worrying about it. Actually, there's no guarantee that they will respond with force. The environmental protection agency or some other group might declare my spider boss a new species and try to stop people from disturbing it's natural habitat. That would also be bad since I need delvers to survive … I think. Wait how do I actually grow as a dungeon. No sooner had I asked the question than a large amount of information entered my consciousness.
Dungeons expand and grow by consuming mana which is automatically converted into dungeon points.
Dungeons will natural gain enough mana for one dungeon point every 48 hours local time
mobs and delvers also produce dungeon points when they are killed by each other (the amount is equal to the relative effort involved)
After searching through the rest of the information I realized that the amount of dungeon points I receive is based on a simple formula. I'm just gonna call them DP from now on because saying dungeon points every time is already getting old. Anyway, the formula is spawner level divided by the average level of the party, that number is then multiplied by the floor number. There may be times when I don't receive a single DP for several encounters in a row. The system keeps track however, and every time it adds up to a whole number I get a single DP. It basically insures that I almost always get at least one DP eventually as delver kills one mob after another. There was more information in that info dump but those are the important bits. If some really powerful person comes through I won't get DP but then killing the mobs won't require any effort. Fortunately I don't think I need to worry about that on a planet without levels or magic or anything like that. One DP on it's own isn't much but it adds up.
As for getting DP from killing delvers the formula is even simpler. I straight up get the delvers level in DP. The entire system seems to be encouraging me to kill delvers. Which would be so bad except that I used to live here, as a human. Don't get me wrong if it comes down to me or them I'm choosing me. I also accept that because of my nature some death is inevitable but I'm not going to be going out of my way to kill delvers. Especially the ones who used to be my friends.
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Meanwhile, just over a kilometer away
Eric is scrolling through videos on his phone while his friends are still getting ready. There were all kinds of videos of people supposedly doing actual magic. Ordinarily he would dismiss such videos as complete nonsense without a second though. The existence of the blue box that appeared three months ago changed all that however. The blue box contains everyone's personal stats as well skills and abilities. Everyone even has a level just like in a video game. He still remembers how the world lost it's collective mind at first. That lasted for all of two months, if that long. Part of him is still amazed at how quickly the world as a whole adapted. Once people realized that the world wasn't immediately ending they all just sort of went meh and moved on. One positive is that being able to see their health improve in real time caused people to start exercising more.
That's how he was able to drag his best friend away from the computer. Together with their two girlfriends they decided to go hiking in the woods near the park. There have been sightings of weird creatures that are stronger and faster than normal. Which is why they are taking machetes and as much leather and/or Kevlar padding as they can afford with them. They would have brought guns but if they did encounter a problem by the time they aimed and pulled the trigger it would probably be to late. Even normal animals now have reaction times that shouldn't be possible. Although, there are claims of people with insanely fast reaction times as well. Another big reason they are going is that farm animals, which are also suddenly faster, stronger, and more aggressive, have become really hard to contain leading to a drop in global food supplies. Not that they expect to take down a bull, but a rabbit the size of a large dog would be nice too.
On their way to the park they get a few strange looks from people. Not nearly as many as they would have gotten three months ago however. The park itself is all but abandoned, being so close the the wilderness it was deemed too dangerous by most people. After just a month it's plain to see that nature has already started to reclaim it. They follow the path at first. They have no intention of needlessly risking their lives. This is already risky enough. Their main purpose was just getting exercise after all. Unfortunately, fate had other plans. Amy's base ball cap was suddenly snatched by a gust of wind which sent it tumbling into the woods. Naturally the group chased after it. They managed to catch it after about a minute of chasing. Well catch is a bit strong, the truth is it finally got snagged on a bush.
They were getting ready to turn around and head back to the trail when Damion exclaimed "yo, what's that?" while pointing to a strange looking cave further away. It was strange looking because it was in the middle of a relatively flat area. It was the kind of stereotypical cave you'd see in an average jrpg. The next few minute were spent discussing whether or not to approach it. On the one hand there could be dangerous monsters inside such as mutated bears or wolves. On the other hand there could be fantasy loot. After all the world is becoming more like a fantasy world every day. After some debate they decide to at least go and check it out. After all there is a reward for reporting anything strange and they do have to confirm that it's not just a normal cave that people ignored.
As they approach the cave the weirdness only intensifies. "It's as if the ground just opened up" remarks Rachel. Which helps to comfort exactly none of them. The weirdness continues as they enter the cave. "I'm sure we would have known if there was a mine here" says Eric while trying to recall if he had ever heard anything about a mining operation in the towns past.
