“Yeah... that’s not happening.” I said looking out at the Smoldering Sequoia through my watery eyes.

I’d woken up too sober for my liking and decided to check out the second floor for my report. On my way to the spiral staircase I had glanced over at the new device resting in the main room’s back left corner. It didn’t take much deduction to realize it was my way out.

Mostly comprised of blue tinted glass, the Teleporter was large enough inside to easily fit 15 armed adventurers at once. Raising about 6 inches from the floor to meet the glass was a marble base surrounding a glowing orange glass floor. Sitting in front of the sliding glass door stood a pedestal capped with an orb I recognized as a mana battery. Wagering a guess I assume battery sends any mana sent through it directly to the dungeon core or owner.

Hovering directly in front of the pedestal was a new [Banner] listing rules very similarly to the one I read when entering the Save Point.

Teleportation Rules

Everyone will wait orderly in line to use any Teleporters so graciously provided by the dungeon If someone cuts in line they will permanently lose their privilege to use the Teleporter. The dungeon has ways of remembering who you are so don’t bother disguising yourself with magic Once in the Teleporter you may connect to any previously registered Teleporters by the individual. If in a group the Teleporter’s available on selection will be decided by the person who has progressed the least into the dungeon. For example if everyone in the group has reached the 5th floor but one member has only reached the 3rd then the teleporter will only be available to floor 3. To gain access to a Teleporter reach it yourself, no cheating! Every person using a Teleporter must pay the toll of 500 mana, 500 Rhilos, or donate an unknown creature to the dungeon (List of creatures previously gifted coming soon).

‘It’s monetizing itself... Just what is this place?’

Getting back on track I made my way down the mushroom lit black stairs to the second floor. Around hallway down a smell hit my nostrils. Having burned down more than one establishment in my time I instantly recognized it as smoke. By the time I reached the bottom my eyes were red and stinging just as much as my throat was scratching.

Casting [Frigid] and [Purify] inside my personal [Atmosphere] I entered a world of fire.

In stark contrast to the pre-established volume of the Save Point and Mangle Bog, this floor was a cacophony of noise. The wooden blaze constantly cracked and smoldered, explosions boomed in the distance, and an unholy tearing sound moved in tandem with the massive shadows dancing across the black and white sky. Whatever the hell is up there I want no part of it.

I had taken only a few steps forward to reach the forest’s edge when 5 winged caribou appeared at tree line in a series of booms. The obvious blue and green leader snorted loudly at me while pawing it’s hoof on the dirt in challenge. All 5 seemed ready, and almost excited, to mow me down.

Raising my hands up in peace I slowly backed up into the staircase before breaking into a sprint. Even at my level those caribou had caught me off guard, and the heat was beyond my paygrade.

“Fucking... winged deer! No way in hell! Guild master can kiss my- “

After so many profanities I surprised myself with my own creativity I reached the Teleporter, payed the 500 mana toll and walked through the opening glass door. From the list of floors that appeared inside I selected my only option and felt my body whisked away to the entrance.

---

Watching Bit run out the entrance I was slightly miffed he didn’t stop and appreciate my refurbished entrance. It had been a lot of work under the time crunch of one night!

Once everyone had left the dungeon for the day I completely blanketed the walls in the same cloudy white marble as the Save Point and put down a black marble floor that reflected the Luminous Shroom lamp’s vibrant hues. Heading to the right, adventurers would find my new Teleporter Room. This new space could hold around 200 people and was little more than a que line for the Teleporter. I’d toyed around with the idea of putting more in here but I had no good ideas at the moment.

Heading into the dungeon proper on the left I finally removed the old drop down. At this point very few adventurers hadn’t heard about the piranhas, making the trap’s purpose mute. So I replaced the steep drop with a black staircase leading openly into the water. Finishing up the change I opened up the wall so that the Mangle Bog proper was visible from the cave entrance.

During my work I couldn’t help but pat myself on the nonexistent back. I’ve gotten much faster and confident when it comes to using my skills and designing floors. While scrolling through [Construction] for any buildings or facilities I might want in the entrance I managed to change the tab order all by myself! Slowly but surely I’m making the voice’s gifts my own.

Speaking of, I’ve collapsed the [Construction] catalogue into just 5 tabs. I still have a large number of listings to go through but everything I’ve seen so far falls under Utility, Traps, Residential, Production, or Miscellaneous.

Utility constructs are shops, training halls, public parks or anything else that serves a purpose outside of killing or housing. Since there aren’t enough of them for their own tab I’ve also thrown “magic” items like the Teleporter in this tab.

Traps is obviously for premade trap templates. These range in quality and price from pitfalls with spears to crumbling ice floor puzzles. For my dungeon building style this tab has little use. My creatures and environment are the main focus but I’m not entirely opposed to puzzle oriented traps. If I make any traps in the future though I’d rather design them myself than choose one from the menu. So for now this tab will be little more than good inspiration.

Residential is comprised of dens, burrows, hives, nests, or even just normal brick houses for my creatures to live in. For now I left my already constructed dens alone and filed the idea away in my brain. Putting the Coal Cats up in a deco modern style apartment seems pretty pointless right now but who knows!

Production constructions are capable of generating different resources if I supply workers and craftsmen. For example I could construct a Lumbermill and have Mary go chop down self-replenishing trees for free wood. Currently the only monsters I have capable of work are the Named who can be assigned any job, but I have a feeling an Irwin run Brewery wouldn’t run very efficiently. Like Residential this is a tab to do more with in the future.

Finally there is Miscellaneous which is were I put everything I don’t understand. Many of these items may fit under other categories but I’m not familiar with this world’s lingo yet. Until the voice or some helpful stranger mentions what a Uraptorrel Hangar is I’ll hold off on buying one.

During my time altering the listing, I found something of potential value for the second floor. I had placed it under Production and it was called a “Kiln”. The size was around that of the entrance’s Teleporter room and I was eager to try cooking my Clay Golems inside it.

When I had originally formed the Clay Golems the Smoldering Sequoia had proved too hot for them to properly cook. I’d toyed around with some “molds” for them to wait inside of while hardening into ceramic or a similar substance, but that had proven unsuccessful. Maybe using a building meant specifically for firing clay would produce a better result?

Placing the first Kiln past the stream imbedded in the left wall cost around 20,000 mana. It was expensive for an experiment but I had high hopes. The door into the Kiln was a simple roman archway with a yellow keystone held aloft by black stones. Inside, the space went back about 20 feet, after the arch it pushed outwards around 25, and the entire Kiln boasted a ceiling of about 7. Along the walls and floor the Kiln was made of a hardened yet cool dirt mix.

Base [Construction] finished I tried summoning 5 Clay Golems inside the Kiln. I’m no ceramist but the temperature is likely still too high for normal clay firing. Not to mention that the heat I’m supplying comes only from the ambient heat of the Infernal Redwoods instead of specific flame for the Kiln. Lucky for me the Kiln itself seemed to adjust the interior to make the process functional in a way similar to [Purposeful] and [Perfectionist] during creature creation. And after a full day of cooking a notification appeared!

*YOUR CLAY GOLEM HAS REACHED THE EVOLUTION THRESHOLD! 1 OPTION AVAILABLE WOULD YOU LIKE TO EVOLVE YOUR CLAY GOLEM INTO A TERRACOTTA GOLEM?

Yes/No

Hitting yes for all of them I earned myself 5 golems made out of heat resistant terracotta! But my work isn’t done yet. The new golems were still shaped like big lumpy humans. Rounded heads, stumpy arms and legs, and no way to fight besides slow blunt force attacks. I had basically succeeded in making brick Play-doh men.

‘Maybe I can mold them like Play-doh?’ I thought sarcastically while summoning a new batch of golems.

While creating them I attempted to shape one of their arms like Mary does to her shadow body for fun. Imagine my surprise when it actually worked! After the first I systematically gave each of the newest generation golems a different weapon or weapons for limbs and was even happier when they evolved into Terracotta Golems without issue.

‘This is getting interesting...’ I said scratching my metaphorical chin and testing the limits of the molding process.

During my experiments while watching Mary and Mulan spar in the background I found that the Clay Golems have very little limitations when being summoned. As long as I give them enough mass and they are still capable of self-sufficient movement, they remain fully autonomous! Naturally I needed some time to hone my skills in golemancy but this was a big step forward for the species. For now I saved the template of my “Katana Terracotta Golem” and got to work planning out the end of the floor.

‘Terracotta warriors and a Ronin huh... What can we do with that?’