Unnamed Dungeon Level 23

Mana Capacity: 646,983/750,000

Mana Bank: 200,000/200,000

Passive Regen Rate 1000/day

Floors: 3/5

Named Creatures: 3/7

Skills: Remote Absorption, Create Creature, Create Flora, Dungeon Status, Naming, Expansion, Terraforming, Marking, Mana Bank, Loot Control, Creature Core, Treasure, Banners, Population Control, Bosses, Auras, Micromanager, Note Keeping, Construction, Projection

Traits: Fast Paced, Purposeful, Perfectionist

Notes:

Create subordinates for Mary Choose a monster as the 3rd floor boss Remember to make the 4th floor somewhere we can physically build production constructs (maybe in the safe zone?) Test Glowworms with elemental affinities. Unsure if only color is affected.

It had been a busy week while I waited for my mana storage to passively charge up, what with the invention of the Withdraw Orbs and experimenting more and more with the new creatures. Those orbs were making a killing since they were so useful for adventurers! It had been a risky decision on my part to grant such a boon to my invaders but the raw mana pouring in was something else. Truly a lucky find hidden within the [Construction] tab!

The process was in desperate need of refinement, but it worked for now. Basically I’d purchased a building called an Orb Shop from the [Construction] tab and placed it in my core room. Luckily I could install it into my Monitor, so I didn’t just have a shop inside my main living space. With the Orb Shop I could convert mana directly into currency and purchase whatever I wanted from the shop as easily as I’d check my status. The only downside being a decrease in orbs sold. Not in number I could buy but in what was available across the store’s inventory. I had of course checked the other items and found nothing immediately useful, or worth having a storefront in my lounge. Gifting future creatures a few Orb’s of Blindness could be interesting though...

Actually running the shop was a simple endeavor. Micromanaging has been tasked with alerting me whenever a payment has been made and prompts me to verify the purchase of the orbs from my status. At 35,000 mana per orb on my end I make a nice 15,000 mana from every purchase. On average adventurers net me 400-500 mana depending on their skill level so 1 orb roughly equals 3 kills in my line of work. With the current model I not only have to kill less people, but I also make more profit than I would anyway. My current setup’s only issue is the need for my permission. One day I’ll staff someone full time but I’d rather not waste a Name on something so simple.

Aside from our new business venture we’ve also had our first visitors in Camp Core! The party didn’t stay long since Mulan beat them up so bad, but I’d marked the adventurers before they left so I could check them out later. Mulan herself was saddened at her first fair fight being a loss but I didn’t know why. She faced off against a full raid party and almost won before the leader got a lucky hit in while she was watching the new arrivals. Considering it was a 1 vs 15 I think she did pretty damn well!

The warrior inside her was still upset though so she started training against the various rays and Kirin of Burza to toughen herself against magic attacks, something she’d not been great at defending against during the fight. According to her the rain on her feathers that increased the weight on her feathers also helped build muscle, and the constant thunder in her ears helped train her other senses. Seemed like placebo stuff to me but she swore by it so who was I to judge. Mary also decided to spar against her sister whenever I placed [Training] [Auras] around the floor. Irwin sadly was usually to busy being farmed for potions to get much practice. That said he was steadily improving his water magic and learning human behaviors after several hundred lost battles.

With my mana supply so high and no pressing issues I decided to knock the number one thing off my to do list. Grant Mary her own subordinates like she’d been pestering me about for weeks.

It had been her idea originally but I had liked the concept of expanding our spy network in the outside world so I agreed to make some more Stalkers she could order around. I threw in some Apparitions and Living Shadows so we could see the other evolutions Mary had missed out on like Ghost and Vengeful Spirit as well. Being standard Apparitions most are stuck in the nearby woods for now but once their [Creature Cores] expand upon evolution my public awareness should increase tenfold.

To ensure those evolutions will one day come for the usual noncombatants, I ordered them to serve under Mary as the “Reaper Squad” when they weren’t out collecting information. I’d been inspired by an old game series I loved and created the squad as a way to punish adventurers who stayed in the dungeon for too long. Those weirdoes who’ve been living in the safe zone for an entire month were the perfect example. From now on whenever they entered the various floors the Reaper Squad would attack without relenting. How long the squad would hold off from attacking would vary by floor given my future plans, but I really don’t want a bunch of homeless bums living off me. Forcing adventurers in and out should also increase the sale of Withdraw Orbs as they shatter outside the dungeon’s territory.

Seeds of the Reaper Squad sown I finally got down to naming the 3rd floor boss. I’d already selected which Banner Eel would receive the title, a particularly large and muscular one proficient in swapping the buffs he applied as they became applicable. All that was needed now was to call him to the core room. A task made slightly difficult since he was a giant aquatic eel.

Speaking of I’ve actually relocated the core room to behind the vault door past the reservoir. I haven’t gotten around to making the next safe zone yet since I want to level up a bit first. At least to level 25 so I can get my next selection. Given how strong Mulan and Burza as a whole are in comparison to the 2nd floor I think I have time to just sit back and let the mana roll in. Of course I’ve begun preplanning the design of both the safe zone and the 4th floor in advance. Given how expansive both are looking to become I’ll need a much larger mana capacity to even get started.

Eager to get the 4th [Naming] ceremony started I called Mary and had her carry my core out past the vault door to the edge of the dark reservoir. Despite my best efforts I still couldn’t pick up my core with [Projection] despite being perfectly capable of holding other objects. This meant I had to listen to Mary chuckle in amusement the whole time as I walked beside my real body to the reservoir.

Experimentation with [Projection] hasn’t been going well since my initial findings. No matter what I do I still appear as a glowing orange humanoid and haven’t learnt any useful skills! I would love nothing more than to create an alter ego and go into town since I can technically leave the dungeon, but I’d be noticed in an instant in this form. After we make the new boss Mary is going into town to buy me some clothes. Possibly along with a cloak possessing some kind of enchantment to obscure features. They work on trained rogues, but we’ll find out soon if the effect works on glowing orange people.

Calling the 30 foot long blue and green Banner Eel up to the vault door, we partook in the [Naming] ritual. It was the same as before with the creature bowing his head in servitude to my core. How a giant eel was capable of bowing I don’t really know. More of an underwater curtesy really but it was good enough for the voice so it was good enough for me.

Watching in anticipation me and Mary saw the eel rise out of the water in a glowing orange light, illuminating the entire reservoir in its brilliance. As the eel was being [Named] and turned into a boss at the same time the process took longer than either would have individually.

10 minutes of anticipation later the giant ball of light drawing every eye in cavern began to dissipate as the now black and yellow eel smoothly dove into the water without so much as a splash or ripple. Given the returning darkness it was somewhat difficult to take in the boss’s features, but he was undeniable breathtaking. In an eldritch horror sense of the word.

As the eel lifted his massive head above the water causing the droplets to fall onto the reservoir below and cause the dripping sound to echo throughout the cavern, I called out to him for the first time

“Good to meet you prince Almar of Burza.” Even as I spoke the name I was still tempted to go with Anantashesha but Almar fit the loose lore I’d developed better.

Opening his bright yellow and green eyes that seemed to stare into my very soul and beyond within the darkness of the cavern he responded in a voice that caught me off guard. Despite his very presence creating a sense of fear and awe in all those within sight of him, Almar’s voice was rather laid back and informal. Almost like that of a part time high school lifeguard working at the local pool.

‘Oh well, he can just be a somewhat obnoxious prince in the backstory.’

“Good to talk with you after all this time, uh... Master?” He said as he slowly moved his enormous maw, a questioning look seemed to flash across his monstrous face before he leaned in closer in a whisper.

“Is that what you’d like me to call you? I think you want me to be the prince of this fallen kingdom. Which would seemingly make you the king, would it not?”

Not wanting another embarrassing Mulan situation I answered hastily “No! You can call me whatever you want. That’s just the lore of this floor but if you want you can call me master, pops, boss, you, or anything else you want. Feel free to be as formal or informal as you wish.”

A grin that made no attempt to hide the fangs hidden beneath spread on Almar’s face as he answered “Boss...? I like that one. Yes... from now on you are Boss to me!”

Motioning for Mary to take my core back I lingered for a moment and said “We’ll leave you some time to get accustomed to your new body. Later I’ll come around so we can experiment but from the others I understand such a sudden mental and physical change can be disorienting.”

Nodding as he slowly fell beneath the dark waters Almar added “Sure thing Boss. I’ll let you know when I’m at 100%.”

With that, the new prince of Burza fell beneath the waves and the cavern returned to complete silence. Rather unnerving once you were aware of what swam underneath the still waters but that wasn’t my problem!

---

Back in the core room I took a look at my mana supply and was both shocked and surprised. I was down to 600,000/750,000 mana with 200,00 still in my mana bank! That meant that naming Almar had cost over 75,000 mana on his own after subtracting the Reapers. He was without a doubt the most expensive creature I’d ever created but that made me more excited for what he could do.

While expensive I was actually somewhat surprised at how cheap it was in comparison to my current mana intake. I hadn’t been paying much attention since so much mana was being used while fixing up the little things on the 3rd floor but I was raking in mana nowadays! The amount I spent naming Almar would be back with just 7 sold Withdraw Orbs!

“Something wrong master?” Mary said as she finished sending out a squad of Apparitions to chase down a notorious party killer she’d long had her eyes on.

“I’m just proud of myself. We’ve really come a long way since 24 mana a day haven’t we?” I said to the only creature able to understand our humble beginnings.

Smiling Mary replied, “Sure have!”

Pausing briefly I asked a question of my own “Can you think of anything else to do before waiting to level up for the 4th floor? Working to far ahead on it now feels a little too fast...”

Raising a red eyebrow Mary said “Why not? More defenses are always good.”

“I guess it just feels strange. No one had even seen Burza yet but I’m already moving on. Guess I just got used to the rapid fire pace of the early days.”

Crossing her arms Mary began “Master, think about it this way. Right now the “voice” as you call it would permit up to 5 floors. If we just stopped spending so much mana replenishing our forces immediately with [Population Control] for a few days, I’m sure that number would increase as well. The amount of time we’ve spent on our lower floors to develop them could actually be seen as rather slow. Maye we’re supposed to have 5 floors by now?”

Mary was making a good point. I believe I have a better understanding of what the voice and my status screens are after speaking with educated locals of this world like Alice and Everest. Put simply the voice and screens are my level up dreams. From what I understand the dreams heavily reflect the user’s personality in appearance and work to simplify the future growth and skills the person has access to. So if I had to guess the “voice” as I’ve been calling it took the form of a video game like system since it would be familiar and understandable to me. No one was actually behind the voice at all. At most it is a visual manifestation of my new instincts as a dungeon core. It’s not a perfect theory given the creature selection lists including things I’ve never heard of, but then again, did the first person to earn a sword skill know what a sword was? What came first the creatures or the selection?

“Well, let’s at least get our next selection first. I have a rough outline of the 4th floor but I still need to workshop it a bit.”

Shrugging Mary said “I think it’s good not to rush things. We should keep a certain level of polish and intricacy for all our floors since we have created such a high standard for ourselves.”

“Agreed! Each of my floors will be a work of art. While we’re on the subject what comes to mind when I say the color Indigo- “

*URGENT NOTICE! THE “DUNGEON OF FIREWORKS” AND THE “DUNGEON OF FAIRIES” HAVE DECLARED AN OFFICIAL DUNGEON WAR ON THE “UNNAMED DUNGEON”.

*...DUNGEON WAR ALTERATIONS HAVE BEEN MADE.

*ALL CREATURES WILL NOT BE RESTRICTED BY CREATURE CORE MANA SUPPLY FOR THE DURATION OF THE WAR.

*ALL INVADERS CURRENTLY WITHIN THE DUNGEON WALLS (EXCLUDING THE DESIGNATED “SAFE ZONES”) HAVE BEEN EVICTED AND ENTRY TO THE DUNGEON’S FLOORS FOR ANYONE NOT DIRECTLY PARTICIPATING IN THE WAR HAS BEEN RESTRICTED.

*THE DUNGEON WAR WILL END ONCE ALL OF EITHER SIDES CORES HAVE BEEN CAPTURED OR DESTROYED AND/OR ALL DUNGEON MASTERS HAVE DECLARED THEMSELVES UNABLE TO CONTINUE OR BEEN KILLED

*PENALTY OF LOSING THE DUNGEON WAR IS UP TO THE DISCRETION OF THE WINNERS. FOR THIS WAR THE “DUNGEON OF FIREWORKS” AND “DUNGEON OF FAIRIES” HAVE DECALRED THE TERMS TO BE: COMPLETE OWNERSHIP OF THE LOSERS CORE WILL BE SPLIT BETWEEN THE WINNING SIDE.

*DUNGEON HAS REACHED HIDDEN REQUIREMENT: Either declare or be drawn into a dungeon war

*ACCES TO SKILL “COMMANDERS” GRANTED

*SKILL “COMMANDERS” DEEMED IRRELEVENT!

*SUBSIDIZING LOSS OF SKILL FOR “UNNAMED DUNGEON” ...

*SUCCESS!

*ACCESS TO SKILL “PERSONA” GRANTED

*DUNGEON HAS REACHED HIDDEN REQUIREMENTS: Have a Boss monster or several Boss monsters required to serve multiple roles at once.

*ACCESS TO SKILL “INSTANCES” GRANTED

TIME UNTIL WAR BEGINS: 47:59:59