Doyle yawns, not tired but more out of habit. ‘Still one thing left though before the floor is ready for people. Don’t want to forget about setting up their behaviors again. Now lets see.’

‘Hmm, the first two kobolds can be hiding behind random boulders. Besides that, let them follow their instincts. For the two large rooms with shepherds have them keep the goats around until one gets too old and then send it into the next room for the axe beaks. The goats can follow their orders as well to give them a slight edge on adventurers.’

‘Those axebeaks can just stay as they are for the moment. I want to see how they actually react. Though for the ramp room lets make sure they aren’t aggressive to the kobolds. Speaking of, those kobolds can just hang out as well so no problem there.’

‘Now in the forest room the shepherd should wander around a bit and once again if the goats get too old send them to play with the axebeaks. This time in the previous room. The goats should be able to climb up the wooden stairs, so no problem there. She should also keep an eye on the cliff just in case someone climbs it without clearing the rest of the room. The other kobolds can just chill how they want as on the first floor they seem to have a decent set of instincts.’

‘Besides that, I have the goat farm. Since this is being done with dungeon rules I can just set it up so whenever a room with goats gets low on them, the oldest goat is sent over to replace the losses. That and keep five breeding pairs in the farm no matter what. I can always overrule that if some major threat comes through that I want to goat swarm.’

‘In fact, if I do want to goat swarm the forest room is the best place for it because the trees break up the line of sight. I can just send all the goats and kobolds from the entire floor over there using hidden passageways. Though if I plan to do that, I should put in another secret entrance. This one in the first large room so the two kobolds there can easily retreat as well.’

‘Still, I feel like something is missing. There are lizards and rabbits in every room without predators. Though the ramp room is an exception as it has both. Clover is everywhere for the rabbits and goats to eat and cover the floor in general. Axebeaks can eat the critters and an occasional goat. Kobolds will do as kobolds want.’

‘There are now trees, though they don’t really grow so that should be fine. It would be nice to have some actual sunlight, but that just isn’t an option. Though who knows, my lights are magic so they might just cover the plants’ need for photosynthesis. Wait. Wait a second. My plants in theory have something to eat. Because of that, my goats and rabbits have things to nom. Those in turn give my kobolds, axebeaks, and vine assassin dinner.’

‘I am missing a creature there! My horned lizards have nothing to eat. Stupid of me to miss that. I even have prey insects as its own database entry. Though that is a bit of a misnomer as I am sure I got some spiders in there. Not only isn’t that an insect but they are predators as well.’

‘Now where to place them? I have beetles, flies, butterflies, ants, bees, and the aforementioned spiders. Hell, not that I list them, I have even used some of them already! I have that whole bee hive up on the first floor. Though I guess people don’t get to it often enough to stay on top of my mind.’

‘Anyway, I have a couple ideas for what to do. I’m going to put a beehive up on that little island, the one kobold seems to have taken a liking too. Though this one will be more natural, placed on a tree instead of inside a custom-made stalagmite hive. That won’t take care of my lizards though.’

‘My next placement won’t help the lizards either, but I feel the need. It isn’t very specific on what beetles it means so lets see, [system, populate the heavy forest with fireflies].’

Moments later flickers of light appear inside the dark forest and Doyle is happy.

‘Okay, now to feed my lizards. For that I want regular beetles and ants. Add in some spiders to keep their numbers in check in case the lizards aren’t that greedy and I should be good.’

‘With beetles I can just place them around and they should take care of themselves. Even if the lizards manage to clear them out of the rooms, they are in the predator rooms and will provide overflow to repopulate. Now I already have the fireflies and I don’t want too much variety so three more types? Yeah, that feels about right. A black beetle, click beetles, and green June bugs.’

‘As for the ants, I will have to help them set up at the start. Though with luck the queens might live long enough to do something. One nest to each room of large size or bigger. Just have to place them away from any lizard dens.’

‘Though one last touch. A bevy of spiders in the forest. The fireflies are nice and nostalgic for me, but I don’t want them taking over too much. Plus a web in the face is such a classic freak out.’

Everything planned out insects pop up all over the floor and one of the lizards gets its first taste of beetle. With this a ding rings out in Doyle’s head as a system message pops up.

{Biosphere Balancing lv5 acquired}

He pauses for a moment. A skill was not something he had expected to receive for placing some bugs, but he wasn’t going to complain. Instead, he just skips straight to pulling up the skill description to find out just what it does.

{Biosphere Balancing lv5

To take a contained environment and allow the creatures living within to survive or even thrive. Currently, the skill is focused on balancing a few creatures against each other though with time and levels even manipulating a planet’s biosphere isn’t out of the question. After all, what else would you call a planet except a contained environment?}

‘With that as the cherry on top the second floor is well and truly finished. Though of course I need some adventurers to muck around with it all. No plan survives first contact after all. Plus I haven’t really given my axebeaks much guidance beyond staying in their rooms. Whatever, time to go and do some show and tell.’

Doyle shifts his view to Ally room again, ‘Hey Ally! I finished the second floor and got a new skill. Here’s the final layout.’ And he projects the second floor map to a blank space on her wall.

‘The letters should be self explanatory though I will note that capital K is for female kobolds and lower case is for male. Also, the gray hallways are the hidden ones and green is for forest areas. The lighter green for the sparse trees and darker for the dense trees. What do you think of it?’

Ally turns away from another screen that is set to follow the current group in the dungeon and takes a look. ‘Hmm, the layout looks decent and I see you still haven’t given up on the vine assassins. That’s a suitable place for it as it can’t really be avoided there. Besides that, the large rooms that you almost cut in half don’t seem to do much. The idea is good but I think at that size you don’t quite get enough bang for your buck. Now with your ramp room it works out as you can snake them along better and spread out the enemies. Though I guess we’ll just have to wait for someone to get through and check it out. Now you mentioned a new skill? What did you get?’

Doyle laughs, ‘It is perfect for what I am doing or at least will be later on. The skill is called biosphere balancing and it helps with getting all my critters playing off each other. Not much guidance from it yet, but it popped when I added in some bugs for my lizards to eat. Once I have more regular creatures to play around with, it will be a big help.’

‘Sure, I could just use rules on everything so things work out but I prefer it this way. I don’t know why, but something tells me that relying on rules too much for such basic things won’t be good in the long run.’

Ally smiles, ‘I don’t know what your feeling about rules is. Most dungeons seem to use them heavily, but I guess time will tell. What I do know is that skill will be an enormous help at higher levels. Even if you didn’t want to use it to balance your creatures against themselves, the skill will help set up good creature combos. Common things like how some crustaceans will put filter feeders on their shells as protection. Plus of course the simple fact that more skills will mean more paths points. Though speaking of that, how many are you up to now?’

They both turn to the display with his status.

{Name: Doyle Huxley

Race: Dungeon Core (Strange Caverns)

Soulbond: Ally Huxley

Paths: [51] Dungeon Core II 10/10, Kobold Community 15/15, Energy Well I 3/3

Level: 1

S[15] A[12] C[15] I[12] W[14] P[11] D[14] K[21] L[16]

World Energy(/R per hour): 2500(270)

Skills: Territory Control lv15, Dungeon Rules lv13 > 19, Universal Deconstruction lv8 > 10, Dungeon Pattern Database lv15, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv20 > 21, Conceptual Reinforcement lv12 > 17, Biosphere Balancing lv5

Dungeon Patterns: goat lv10 > 11, material patterns lv7, food patterns lv6, shrubbery lv6, clothes lv5, kobold lv5, armor patterns lv5, axe beak lv5, Basic Rooms lv5, assassin vine lv4, weapon patterns lv4, vines lv2, clover lv2, horned rabbits lv2, prey insects lv2, horned lizard lv1}

‘Oh hey’, Doyle mutters, ‘the goat pattern leveled up! I guess enough of them have been dying on the first floor.’

Ally rolls her eyes, ‘while true the more important thing to take away is 51 points you have available to spend. Lets pull up your paths and take a look at what we can splurge on!’

Doyle chuckles at this but since he wants to see it as well he doesn’t delay.

{Points: 51

Class: Dungeon Core II 10/10

Completed: Kobold Community 15/15, Goat Supremacy 20/20, Energy Well I 3/3

Started [0/3]:

Available: Dungeon Core III 10/100, Vine Warper 0/15, Kin Slayer 0/100, Voidborn 0/250, Axe Sharpener 0/5, Commanding Subordinates 0/12, Vegetation Variety 0/20, Energy Well II 0/6, Expansionist 0/30, Fire’s Flying 0/7, Ageless Queens 0/15, Biomes Aplenty 0/5}

Ally smiles, ‘three new paths! Though only the biomes one makes sense to me. What’s up with the other two?’

Doyle brings up a couple scenes directly from his second floor showing off his fireflies and ants. ‘Well, I have these two lovelies now. Going to go out on a limb that the fire one does something nasty to the fireflies. Not taking that one because I don’t want a forest fire. Ageless Queens on the other hand is high on my list of desirable paths.’

Ally nods, ‘ageless anything is amazing. Just living long enough can raise some creatures up to sapience, even in a dungeon. Though my guess is that the effect will centralize on one of your ant queens. The others might not die, but even the chance at sapience is a rare chance for any dungeon. Cores like Flisle only have a lot because of accumulation over time.’