The Oaken Tunnels-a post-game dungeon

[JustLikeAFruitPounder]

The Legend of Zelda is a heartwarming memory to me as a gamer. I remember the Deku Tree in Ocarina of Time. A bug named Gohma took it over and was eating it from the inside out, and I had to go inside it to stop Gohma. I killed it, but the Deku Tree sadly didn't survive.

The Oak Lab is also a very cherished memory. And I thought I would give it the same treatment.

Once you beat the game, you can go back to the Oak Lab and BURG.L will tell you that there are heavy biosigns near the lab. He then discovers said biosigns are INSIDE the Oak Tree. The screen goes dark, and then BURG.L tells you he just constructed an elevator inside the lab so you can access the network of tunnels and rooms the bugs have been digging throughout the tree.

The tunnels create a complex, cavernous system of chambers, hallways, and nests.

As soon as those elevator doors opened, you saw that the inside of the tree was cluttered with vines dropping from the ceiling, as well as various types of mosses, molds, and mushrooms covering the floor and walls. You also come face-to-face with a bark beetle, an enemy exclusive to this biome. These beetles are weak, but come in packs of 2-4.

In some of the larger chambers of this mega-dungeon, you may come across horntails. Horntails are solitary, wood-boring wasps with one hell of a sting. Horntails attack by grabbing you with their mandibles, flying in the air, stinging you a bunch, then dropping you.

Moth caterpillars are a common sight here, and are large but passive beasts that drop 6 pieces of meat, adding to the high reward of this high-risk biome.

Longhorn beetles are giants that pack a hell of a punch. They use their horns as whips, and can detect you from miles away.

Grubs are numerous in the Oaken Tunnels, and you don't need to worry about "surprises" when digging-neuropterans don't nest in trees. There are no larvae here.

Upgrade materials like candy, quartzite, and marble are everywhere in the Oaken Tunnels, but the beetles outweigh the mats by a large margin.

There are also multiple lesser stag beetles here (the small ones, about half the size of regular ones) These serve as the "Black Widow-like" enemies. They are hidden away and never leave their den.

Lakes of pure tree sap overpopulate the Oaken Tunnels, if you fall in one it is very hard to get out.

There are 2 warring wasp hives here, each with their own loot. Bald-faced hornets and paper wasps will attack each other on sight, and packs of them will roam the tunnels. Their hives are like small mini-dungeons inside the mega-dungeon. Wasps are weak, but fast. The main reason they are tier 3 is because of their speed and pack tactics. They have the same health as a bee with a bit more attack strength.

There's an abandoned and dead honeybee hive deep within the Oak. Now overtaken by beetles and wasps, the hive still holds one deep secret: a lost lake of Royal Jelly used by the bees to feed heirs to their throne, now forgotten.

-LOOT-

-Bark Beetle parts and heads are used to make the Bulwark of the Druid, a shield that has a chance to make low-level enemies like worker ants and larvae switch sides and fight for you if they strike the shield.

-Longhorn parts and horns are used to make the Longhorn Longbow, an alternative to the Black Ox Crossbow that has immaculate range and attack power, but is slow to fire.

-Horntail parts and stingers can be combined with Dust Mite Fuzz to make Horned Arrows, an alternative to Splinter Arrows that do considerably more damage, but cannot be used to make elemental arrows.

-Wasp parts, heads, and stingers can be used to make Wasp Armor, allowing you to chill in wasp hives and see inside the life of a wasp. Each wasp faction has its own armor set.

-Stag Beetle Plates and Stag Beetle Mandibles can be used at an anvil to make things unbreakable. Apply Stag Beetle Plates to your armor, and it has infinite durability. The same goes for Stag Beetle Mandibles and weapons.

-Royal Jelly is used to make the Queen's Delight, a smoothie that considerably upgrades your max HP value. This smoothie can be used only once.

And that is all. This is never going to happen, I am very sure, but maybe some ideas can be taken from this pipe dream. Hopefully.