Eric POV

  We made it all the way back to the path before realizing that we weren't being chased. Well, most of us did! Amy had apparently fallen at some point and in our panicked none of us noticed. We had to go back for her. Even if those snakes were still there we had to at least try. We weren't in the mine anymore, which seemed to be their home, so surely we could just kill off the few that followed us out. After a bit of back tracking we managed to find her. Fortunately, we didn't see any snakes. Unfortunately, Amy wasn't moving! From where we were I couldn't tell whether she just tripped and knocked herself out somehow or … I didn't want to finish that thought.

  Without knowing what else to do I pulled out my phone and called for an ambulance. Cell phone serves had been getting increasingly spotty recently but fortunately emergency numbers still worked. As we sat there waiting we each went over what happened. For some strange reason those snakes seemed content to chase us out of the mine. That alone would seem to indicate a level of intelligence that shouldn't be possible. Then again normal stopped being 'normal' a while ago. Eventually the ambulance arrived. I couldn't see it but I could hear it. By that time I had already decided it would be best to try and carry Amy to the parking area.

  After a brief examination and a night in the hospital "just to be sure" we were all released around noon the next day. It turns out that the venom had an anesthetic effect. Not lethal on it's own but in high enough doses could cause the body to start shutting down. It just so happened that Amy had nearly twice as many bites as anyone else. We had all been bitten way more than we realized however. Unfortunately snakes defending their den wasn't considered unusual enough for a reward. Unless we could prove that there was something strange about that mine other than it not showing up on any historical documents there was no hope of any reward.

  Dungeon POV

  Three days have passed since the first group of visitors. I gained an extra dungeon point just from existing in this world. That was the highlight of those three days however. I just wish something would happen! I literally can't do anything right now. I can't even sleep to pass time. At least the scenery is familiar. On the plus side the more days pass the less likely it is some government agency is going to step in and block off the area. I really can't see them shutting down the entire park just because I'm here, so any attempt to quarantine me would probably be right outside. The most likely scenario is that I'm overthinking it. Even if some strange creatures have been spotted, according to that groups conversation, they're not going to call in the nation guard over a few snakes.

  On the morning of the fourth day my solitude is interrupted by a guy doing a really good Steve Erwin cosplay. The guy was wearing a go pro and apparently filming a nature documentary, or pretending to at any rate. Based on what he's saying it seems he heard about a mine full of snakes that attack on sight. His goal is apparently to prove that even now animals won't attack without a reason. Which, to be fair, if these were normal snakes he would probably be right. To bad for him my snakes aren't normal. I should also mention that I now have what I would consider a healthy amount of snakes. The first snake struck while he was trying to calm another snake. The rest of the encounter went exactly how you'd imagine. Though he did manage to kill a few of them before succumbing so the guy wasn't a complete idiot.

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  Honestly, if he hadn't come alone he probably would have made it. I could have spared him but he chose to enter my domain. It's not like I sought him out in order to kill him. I'm not sure why but watching him die didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. Watching him and all his stuff get absorbed was interesting. On the surface it looks like they just disappeared but as the dungeon core I can feel the dungeon studying them. It's a weird feeling because I am the dungeon and yet just as the human body does many things without conscious input I can feel parts the dungeon moving automatically. After a few minutes I gain the ability to spawn exact duplicates of everything he had on him. It seems items native to this world are given special consideration. Meaning I can summon them individually. It still costs one DP for each Item mainly due to them not being very effective in combat. To bad he didn't have anything on him that would be worth giving out as loot.

  Over the next few weeks more and more people started finding there way into my domain. Sometimes it was only one or two and sometimes it would be groups of around twelve or so. I did start to find it rather odd that they kept showing up but I just figured curiosity outweighed common sense. Not all of them made it out alive, usually the solo people, yet still they kept coming like moths to a flame. Eventually I even gained enough DP to place a treasure node at the back of one of the dead ends. It was a little unsettling watching a chest literally grow out of the stone. The chest itself looks like a stereotypical wooden chest. It's about 100cm by 50cm and about 75cm deep, not huge but plenty big enough to hold all kinds of goodies. The only thing slightly odd about it was that it was fused to the ground. It makes sense actually, I mean delvers are meant to take the stuff in the chest not the chest itself.

  Then it happened, almost a full month after their first visit the original group was back. This time I was sure to pay attention, not that there was anything else to do. The thing is last time they were here they ran screaming from the entrance! Well maybe not screaming but they certainly left in a hurry. So, why were they back? Oddly they seemed to be asking themselves the same question.

  Rachel: "ok why are we back in this creepy mine"

  Amy: "come on Rach don't pretend like you don't feel it"

  Damien: "enough guys, we all feel it. Something is drawing us here, to this mine."

  Rachel: "If it even is a mine"

  Damien: "Oh don't start that again. yes I admit it's weird that the mine didn't seem to exist before a month ago but that doesn't mean it's a secret alien base or something!"

  Rachel: "Ok first of all, I didn't say aliens I said mole people! Second of all take a look at the world now, can you really say my theory is any crazier than literally everything else happening right now? How do we know that what we think is the beginning isn't really the end point of the mine?"

  Eric: "Enough! Clearly something is compelling us to explore this mine so can we all just focus on not dying please."

  The conversation kind of died down after that. Partly because nobody seemed to have anything to say, but mostly because they were too busy fighting my snakes. To their credit they did seem much more prepared now than they were the first time. They made it further than they did last time, though a large part of that is me still trying to fine tune the encounter size. Eventually however they were forced to retreat when one of them started getting sluggish thanks to the venom, although they weren't nearly as panicked this time.