Absorbing the men from around the dungeon the raid officially came to an end. With the immediate threat dealt with I need to begin preparations for the future. Whomever sent these 5 would soon realize 7 people had gone missing in this cave. If more come out here they will be much better prepared and elite forces. Hopefully I’ll have some time to prepare before then though. Now that I can properly spend and save my mana instead of prepping for an imminent raid, progress should step up.

My various Shiners had burrowed pretty deep into the men’s flesh by the time I converted them into mana. Needless to say they were well passed mint condition. Giving my silent thanks for their sacrifice I absorbed not only the men but their iron armor as well. Earning myself 1,641 mana on top of the 500 I carried over with [Mana Bank] and the template for a strong metal to work with. Such a large influx compared to my average immediately brought me up to level 5.

*DUNGEON HAS REACHED MANA REQUIREMENTS FOR LEVEL 5

*ACCESS TO SKILL “LOOT CONTROL” GRANTED

*ACCESS TO SKILL “CREATURE CORE” GRANTED

*LEVEL REACHED PLEASE SELECT A FREE BASIC FLORA TYPE ORGANISM. NEXT FREE SELECTION WILL BE OFFERED AT LEVEL 10.

*MANA GRASS

*MANA KELP

*MANA LILY

*MANA CORAL

*WHEAT

*OAK TREE

*SPRUCE TREE

*MANGROVE TREE

*PINE TREE

*SAKURA TREE

*COMMON BROWN MUSHROOM

*COMMON CAVE MOSS

*APPROPRIATE LEVEL REACHED PLEASE SELECT A FREE BASIC CREATURE TYPE ORGANISM. NEXT FREE SELCTION WILL BE AT LEVEL 10.

*KOBOLD

*SLIME

*COMMON EEL

*COMMON BASS

*CAIMAN

*SMALL REEF SHARK

*COMMON WOLF

*OCELOT

*GOBLIN

*IMP

*COMMON SNAKE

*COMMON SPIDER

*COMMON BAT

*MAXIMUM NUMBER OF NAMES ABLE TO BE GIVEN HAS INCREASED TO 2

*MAXIMUM NUMBER OF FLOORS HAS INCREASED TO 2

Before making my new selection I checked out my new status given how many changes had been made.

Unnamed Dungeon Level 5

Mana Capacity 641/1,500

Mana Bank: 500/500

Passive Regen Rate 50/day

Floors: 1/2

Named Creatures: 1/2

Skills: Remote Absorption, Create Creature, Create Flora, Dungeon Status, Naming, Expansion, Terraforming, Marking, Mana Bank, Loot Control, Creature Core, Evolution Influence

Traits: Fast Paced, Purposeful

Several different options are open to me now. Simply upscaling the mana farm with my current mana could bring me up several more levels in just a few days. Investing my current resources into [Expansion] would obviously grow the dungeon, but it would also leave my creatures to fill in the space by themselves. Lastly I could focus on training our current forces. All of which had some merit but I’ll be going for [Expansion].

Increasing the mana farm now would only speed up the natural breeding process of my various fish and salamanders. I believe the elite forces will take some time to arrive. Otherwise they would have been sent instead of the seemingly below average guards from today. Even if I’m wrong the fish breed in such high numbers the extra space should be filled relatively quickly with the help of [Fast-Paced].

Training up my current forces wouldn’t work well either given how small this place truly is. Just the five men previously could walk straight through in mere minutes despite being slowed in the water and by the mushrooms. Not much room for fighting if the ranged magics of my salamanders continue to grow more powerful. Extending the length of the floor would also give Mary more time to pick off members of the invading forces.

Before I used [Expansion] I took a look at my new skills and decided to temporarily hold off on making my free level 5 selections. No use accidentally choosing something I could have Mary find with her new [Creature Core].

[Loot Control] was obviously used for managing what my creatures would leave behind after being absorbed. Only a few of my creatures could have loot assigned, and most came in the form of “Rhilos”. Sacrificing a slime after assigning the foreign term to it revealed Rhilos as a form of currency. Simple double sided gold coins with some silver for change. Amongst my creatures Mary had the highest bounty of 500 Rhilos with the weakest being the Small Cave Slimes at a measly 3. How much a single Rhilos translates to I have no method of testing.

I wonder if I could farm money just like mana? Although causing an economic downturn probably isn’t a great PR move...

Besides the money I could opt to leave the corpses be and lose out on some return mana. The only special drop currently available were Axolotl Whiskers which I didn’t bother sacrificing such an expensive creature to see. Maybe once I have the luxury of excess mana and time I’ll look further into it.

My other new skill [Creature Core] is much more exciting. Working as a mini mana bank I could bestow these small organs inside my creatures. Using the translucent slimes to view the cores revealed them to be black balls covered in small vein like tubes. Just by being within the dungeon boundary the veins will take in the ambient mana of the dungeon while pulsing bright orange. Not only did these orbs grant the creatures with them the ability to leave the dungeon temporarily, but they also increased the overall amount of mana every one of them could hold. For my Solar Salamanders and Lunar Axolotls this meant their magic almost doubled in size.

Prior to the cores installation all my creatures were stuck within the dungeon along with me. Even if they did leave, their bodies would quickly dissipate into the atmosphere since my mana was what gave them form. A few salamanders had tried to exist outside on their own energy, but we soon learned they can’t replenish their mana outside our walls. So, for the first time the world outside our cave has been reached.

Entrusting her with one of the cores I sent Mary out to go gather some new creatures and plant life. During that time I installed the cores in all the current dungeon residents. Hopefully the breeding pairs can pass down the new organs so I won’t always need to manually give out the cores. For my sanity only about 30% of the fish were given cores and I ordered the salamanders to cull those without as a priority. Cores were pretty cheap at 1-5 mana depending on creature size but 1 mana per fish would run me out.

Trying to [Expand] outside the cave resulted in an error of sorts. According to the voice the land outside was “Unalterable”. So for now I’m stuck digging out the ground underneath the cave. This excavation lead to procuring the template for marble, flint, and coal. Not sure if I’ll ever use them but more options is always a good thing.

During my digging I began to suspect that the dungeon may not completely adhere to the physical landscape of the outside. It’s difficult to explain given I don’t fully understand it myself, but the dungeon may exist in some sort of subspace. Otherwise I can’t answer how the dungeon is both taller and wider than the entire hill this cave is located under.

Down the right of the cave entrance was another small corridor which I quickly claimed. It was only about 20 feet deep and a single room vaguely rectangular. Little more than floor space right now but it could be interesting in the future. Perhaps some kind of rest stop before diving into the first floor?

Looking outside the cave mouth placed me in a pine forest with brown dirt, clear brooks, and large stones adding depth to the scenery. Mixed intermediately amongst the pines were towering redwoods filled with various birds nest. From the cave mouth I could smell the pine leaves and hear the various creeks surrounding me. If I didn’t know better at this point I would assume I’d woken up somewhere in the northwestern United States.

Ducking back into the cave it was time to expand my dungeon beyond the natural cave’s terrain. The vast majority of the remodel would be carving into the rock as the cave was very small. It took almost 600 mana in total, but I was able to expand the cave by almost half a mile. After the small drop in ceiling height, which I wanted to keep as a trap, the entire floor was pushed downwards 10 feet and the ceiling dug out to be almost 40 feet high shaped like a dome. The room curved outwards from where the drop ended and then came back together at the end of the room giving it a circular appearance. Some smoothing over of the pond turned lake’s bed gave my new home a feel similar to a skate rink.

The next order of business was pushing the shack to the back of the floor. Around the structure I made a half circle shaped shore of dirt off the back wall. I plan on keeping the mushrooms around the water’s edge but won’t be spending mana on making more of them. If I do make changes after the [Expansion] and new creatures I’ll renovate the shack as a priority.

The last and most expensive design change was filling the floor with water from the drop down all the way to the new island. Destroying the rock around the cave was relatively cheap considering the size but filling a half mile was beyond my budget. I only spent around 300 mana’s worth which would keep the water level around 5 feet. Given the new size was supposed to accommodate around 15 some work needed to be done. Looking over the design while the Shiners began swimming around the new environment I was reminded of when I helped fill my friend’s pool with a hose.

900 mana well spent I decided to hunker down and wait for Mary to come back from her trip. I announced a breeding season to bolster our numbers even more. As I let my tired mind fall to a sleep like state I could only pray for Mary's success.