Many of my rough plans were changed when the Silver-Tier team entered my Dungeon for the first time. As they attempted to brave my monsters of rotting flesh and creeping death, they tried to not speak aloud any secrets that I might use to my advantage against them. Unfortunately, even a broken-off sentence or aborted word is still enough for me to glean information from, so despite their best efforts, I learned.

The kingdom of Iruvel seemed to be planning on expanding across their mountainous border, into the area Home rested in, and naturally would require any Dungeons that might exist in the region to be tightly controlled. At least, if their leader’s reaction, Tam, was any indication of the culture Iruvelians were raised in.

By the gods, even just thinking about that encounter gets my hackles rising, the young fools. In the two weeks I spent with them, I sincerely hoped I wouldn’t have the opportunity to test my true defenses against their group.

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. The only member of their team who was spared was the one who actually thought that thinking about my question was the correct choice. When Biyaban offered them a way out, and they knew just how much more difficult the prior two rooms had been… they still refused.

Anya, the young (I think) elf, begged them to reconsider as well, but they wouldn’t be swayed.

Now I’m forced to deal with their corpses, and to make a tough decision.

My memories practically scream at me that ‘resurrecting the dead humans’ will, in no way, ever be seen in a good light. Despite the nature of their death being in my own self-defense, how I treat their bodies in the aftermath will color how I’m seen for a long time to come.

On one hand, thanks to the bonuses my [Necromancy] ability has from my perks, they would be stronger than my average minion, and could certainly be of assistance in defending my core. If they retained even a portion of their sentience, that would also be wonderful, as currently only the novice shaman out of all my summonable creatures I have working with Katrina is capable of speech besides Biyaban, and he’s a fairly unique case.

On the other, even though it would improve my defenses, I have to take into account the view others held of me. Something about ‘PR’ or ‘Public image’ being important, or so my memories said. Namely, even though Iruvel was likely going to be sending more adventurers into my Dungeon to attempt the same thing the Silver-Tier team did, if they knew I was respectful and might not go straight for the kill-shot straight away.

Due to the rules I’d set up, they might even elect to ‘train’ some more inside of me, since they have a relatively guaranteed safe place to gain levels and train skills.

That reasoning doesn't even include how doing such a thing would affect Dutch’s opinion of me. He’s spoken to my core about the help Home needs, and even now that it seems the town will be receiving an influx of adventurer types soon, he isn’t relieved. At least, that's what I’ve gleaned from his discussions with his trainees.

He either seems to think it won’t matter and they’ll still need the help, or their position will actually be worse somehow once the forces of Iruvel arrive in full.

His opinion doesn’t instill me with vast confidence that my attempt at helping the villagers will make Iruvel see me in a different light.

In fact, what had Tam, the Silver-Tier leader, said? Something about seeing an intelligent undead and running away ASAP?

His belief and utter certainty that he was ‘saving the village’ had driven him to ignore not only his own words but the advice of his cleric and the warning Biyaban provided. I think, looking back, it was for that reason I didn’t think of having him simply knock them out, or paralyze them and drag them all off to the entrance. The ice-cold logic that dominated my train of thought was simple - if I killed all of them, no one would ever know I tried to offer an olive branch. If I didn’t kill the three men, who ardently believed what they were trying to do was for the safety of everyone in the village, they would be back. They would grow stronger and they would try over and over again until they succeeded.

Even if they didn’t, they would take all of their knowledge of my ways and the tricks I used and make it even easier for members stronger than them to actually threaten me.

At the end of the day, that inhuman logic won out.

My survival was too important to risk.

That wasn’t simply because I valued myself over others, even though I did. I think nearly everyone but people like Katrina, who’ve had the self worth beaten out of them, think that way. Survival instinct is, from my understanding, common amongst nearly all living things.

No, it was because despite Box’s best efforts, and my own fears and concerns, it seemed like I could actually help people. My crafters were improving and getting better regularly, as once again thanks to my perks, they weren’t static. They were capable of growing and learning new things.

Combined with the improved crafting perk, [Artificer], they were performing astounding feats for being so new. Nothing fit to go down in the halls of legend quite yet, but someday…

In light of my ruminations, I decided I would not reanimate their bodies. This time.

I made three coffins, nearly identical to the ones that dotted my floors, with custom lids. Each one sported a likeness of the body they held, and a sign was planted in front of each naming who was who.

I didn’t quite trust my artistic talent, or lack thereof, to properly represent the men whose bodies now lay inside of the tombs. Dutch would find them if he came in today, or the day after, and would do whatever he needed to do.

Katrina walked into the entrance against my wishes. It was still right around the time Dutch normally brought his apprentices to practice against my training rooms, and though Anya had fled and would likely distract him there was a chance he would show up regardless.

She said a few words over their new resting place, though I couldn’t catch them, focused as I was on the entrance, waiting for disaster to strike. Katrina and my entrance didn’t have a good track record, after all.

Nothing happened, thank the gods, and Katrina departed with Timmy shuffling after her. If he grew any bigger he wouldn’t be able to walk through the normal sized doors… Problems for the future.

I had other things to concern myself with before someone else showed up, besides.

It was time to make my first major edit to the Rules of Fair Trade.

They had served me astoundingly well so far - in fact, I would go so far as to say they were utterly broken. Any Dungeon without something remotely similar would either have to fight every battle like it was a direct threat to their life, or simply pray to whatever gods Dungeons worshiped that if someone broke through their defenses they wouldn’t simply be killed, or restrained.

Not having that problem was a weight off my mind.

But now, I needed to make the first Rule even less desirable. Which, seeing as enacting it usually meant the adventurer would die if they failed, seemed difficult to do.

So every single Rule received one simple change.

To those who chose Rules 2 or 3, even if the unthinkable happened and someone died, I ensured their body would be returned to the entrance of the Dungeon and left to be collected and buried as the others saw fit.

It hadn’t been outlined before, but it was important to reinforce the idea that trying to kill or restrain me was a terrible idea.

Rule 1 received the largest change of all - any and all who chose it and did not survive would be resurrected and used to defend my Dungeon for the rest of their continued existence. The Silver-Tier team would not be included, and the only ones not to receive the curse of unlife after attempting to harm me.

The reality of the situation was simple. I had to defend myself. If my fears became true, and adventurers flooded my floors in an attempt to reign me in, my crystal would be up to its uppermost point in corpses. My ability to defend myself normally would only be affected by my mana regeneration, the quality of monsters I could summon, and the effectiveness of the traps I made.

With [Necromancy], every adventurer who dared try and test me would now increase my strength, beyond giving me Experience and levels.

Doing so to the three who had just fallen to me seemed… Inhumane.

Not that much of what I did was particularly humane, in regards to self-defense, but I liked to imagine I tried my best.

Even if I didn’t count the potentially vast increases in numbers I would get if my fears came to pass, my other ventures and growth were all giving me large returns.

I’d gained enough Experience from both the party I’d killed and Dutch’s crew that I’d maxed out the upgrade cost reduction. Turns out, there both was a cap, and a potent bonus for achieving it.

Rather than letting it stay a number in a side-menu, as the prior upgrade had been, this one actually became a perk.

[Perk Acquired:]

[Best of the Best:]

You have pursued not only the path of overwhelming numbers, but indisputable quality. For reaching the upgrade cost reduction limit, it has been removed from the Experience selections and you’ve been granted this perk.

When creating a new unit, you have the choice to upgrade it immediately at no cost. All future upgrade costs are halved.

It was, in a word, insane. In combination with [For I Am Legion] it meant, effectively, every single unit (specifically the undead kind) would have double the amount of monsters spawned, and they would receive their first upgrade for free.

It had taken 20 Experience to reach this point, and technically would make a few upgrades more expensive rather than less, but as I progressed into more and more expensive upgrades, the more the percentage reduction would be a boon.

For example, my second upgrade to a pack of [Zombies] would be cheaper if I didn’t have the perk. Five plus two meant summoning it would cost seven. The free upgrade saves me 14 mana (with no discounts) and the second upgrade would be 28 mana (with no discounts). Without the perk, the upgrade would have only been eight mana.

With the perk, it becomes 14 mana.

However, to offset that, all future upgrades immediately begin saving mana, and as they go farther and farther, the more mana I save. As soon as upgrades cost more than 100 mana I’m saving over 50 mana each upgrade.

To call it broken is a bit of an understatement.

Not only that, but in combination with my new status and levels gained, things were starting to look a little out of control…

In a good way, for me. I really didn’t want to die, you know?

[Status]

Name: N/A

Level: 6

Status: Undamaged.

Mana: 547/800 (+202 per day)

As much as I appreciated the two levels and the vast increase in mana capacity, I didn’t appreciate that my regeneration stopped doubling. If it continued at the rate it had before, I would have had slightly over 400 per day, but I can see how that would be slightly ridiculous.

This still allowed me to build up a large amount of mana over time to help me make bigger bosses, more complex rooms and floors, and more.

Regardless, I was in a great position to reinforce my ‘walls’ as it were and continue to both help the locals and create more defenses.

Speaking of helping the locals, my crops had grown several times over in my field, which I’d simply decided to call ‘Elysium’. There was a singular ghost roaming around the fields and the realistic ‘sun’ it contained often cast a beautiful ethereal glow over most of the fields.

I had plans for it in the future, due to the room's unique nature of being deep enough to be part of both the first and second floors I could theoretically expand it even farther by digging it deeper. It would become a room that extended across multiple floors, larger than any singular floor’s room could possibly be, allowing me to give it the illusion of an actual sky. Well, it would get that at some point, right now it was just a really big room with a false sky and sun.

Now, it hasn't turned out perfectly, and I may or may not have screamed profanities at Box when I got the first crop growth, but some of it came out okay.

And by okay, I mean it wasn’t some terrible, disease-laden poison designed to kill, maim, infect, convert, or otherwise harm living beings.

For example, thanks to my perks the ones that did turn out okay looked something like this.

[High-Quality Wheat]

[High-Quality Corn]

[High-Quality Beet]

I wasn’t sure what the difference being ‘high-quality’ actually made, whether it be purely taste, or if somehow food gave bonuses? Either way, my chefs were mighty pleased by their introduction, and Katrina was also quite happy, if the noises she made when eating the new ingredients was any indication.

It was the others that I was upset by the most. It afflicted every single crop to a certain degree, including the trees. They gained affixes along the lines of [Diseased], [Toxic], [Infectious], [Devouring], and [Putrid].

Imagining what a [Putrid Corn] would taste like was bad enough, but they all also had negative effects outside of likely inducing vomiting to whoever caught even a whiff of one of these monstrosities.

My memories highlighted several instances where humans imagined diseased food being weaponized - it was never pretty. Even if I totally excluded the effect of the crops themselves, more often than not the city or town would wind up being contained in some way. The methods chosen to do so ranged from quarantine to simply torching the city and all of its inhabitants.

In fact, I’m pretty sure one of my [Wheat] variants is capable of causing unprotected humans below a certain level threshold to simply transform into an undead monster. By itself, it seems limited in effect, but if I were a truly evil Dungeon and began supplying Home with crops and waited until they became the norm, then found a way to delay the activation by a few hours…

It would be feasible to convert the entire village, or a significant portion of it, with little to no effort on my part.

The ease with which I could inflict mass death upon the people I was attempting to gain the trust of was actually kind of terrifying. In the most horrifying of ways, to boot.

Discounting the terrible ability to get at people through their weak points - their stomach - my physical strength (of my minions) was also increasing at a rapid rate. The combination of the amount of monsters spawned with the upgrades and their cost reductions, in tandem with the levels I’d gained and mana regeneration I sported, and reviewing the difficulty of the Silver-Tier party, indicated I was absolutely terrifying.

In the time since the Silver-Tier team had started until now, Dutch had continued to clear my Dungeon completely. Omen was actually able to stop him the first couple of times, but Dutch was just a very experienced high Gold-Tier. Once he’d formed a strategy he didn’t have an overly difficult time dealing with him - which was fair, because Dutch was a raw physical damage dealer, and Omen was not built to fight him.

The idea I’d fleshed out for the third floor was intended to be as painful as possible for those who were primarily physically oriented, so hopefully I would someday be able to overcome the singular force of nature that Dutch was.

Despite the level of terror I can induce, since that’s not why I’m building up my forces or researching crop growth my continuous growth in strength and… options is a good thing. In fact, I had planned on opening up Elysium to just be publicly available, as its current status as only being visible from atop a cliff meant others couldn’t access it at all. Dutch probably could, but he didn’t consider it to be worth exploring.

He did observe the plants and trees I was growing regularly to at least make sure I wasn’t doing anything too life-threatening. While the ghost I’d nicknamed Inari was still roaming about the place, it couldn’t really interact with the crops. I suppose it could probably kill most of them with a touch, if it chose to, but it seemed to prefer to ‘smell the roses’ as it were. I left it to its devices and spawned in several [Skeletons] who were provided with tools forged by our local [Skeletal Smithing Crew].

Specifically axes, because skeletal bone claws made for semi-decent gardening tools. It was actually somewhat amusing to watch some of the more corrupted trees get chopped down, seeing as to how they fought back. In fact, it was watching one of the more active fights, and the interesting effects the tree tried to use to avoid being chopped down, that gave me a rather morbid idea for the third floor, all it needed was a little focused intent and I could probably make it happen…

It wouldn’t be anything like Biyaban or Omen, but that was okay. The entire floor was going to effectively be a living hell designed to make individuals or entire groups suffer through a terrible slog, if their intent was to destroy or hurt me.

I’d turn off some of the more irritating features of the room for everyone else, but those few who were just determined to do me in would find themselves in for a very, very bad time.

Although speaking of focused intent and upgrades… I stared at Inari. Inari stared with blank eyes back at me. Technically he was staring at a plant, but the floor and the plant were part of me, so it counted.

The [Skeletons] were okay at farming. It took them some time, being a little less nimble or dexterous than the average human would be, but the tireless monsters were still efficient despite their lack of ability. If I was going to open up Elysium to the locals, and the local populace of non-fighters actually showed up, I really needed to make sure nobody accidentally picked up the [Putrid Corn] or [Toxic Beets] or any of their brothers or sisters. That would just be bad, very very bad.

So I decided to use some of my mana that I’d built up and focused on Inari.

As my presence and increasing levels of attention grew, the faded ghost seemed to notice and began to look around with slow, sweeping motions.

From my very limited understanding of how to manipulate mana, I focused it into my one idea. Inari had already been ‘aberrant’ before I did anything to him, so I hoped that what I was doing was actually in line with what the little thing would have wanted. Granted, it might not even know what it really wanted, with its intelligence so low, but regardless…

You will be a protector of Elysium, I pronounced.

You will protect not only this sacred place of growth and life, but you will ensure that those who venture into it do not risk their lives unnecessarily.

You will manage this room, be its guardian, its caretaker, and its keeper.

You will spend your days dancing amidst the soil and crops and trees, watching over the lands entrusted to you and you will help them flourish.

It was these things that I focused on as I mentally executed what I hoped was another test of the Dungeon systems I was using, and Box’s ability to understand my intentions.

There was no merging like with Omen, I couldn’t see any spectacular changes in mana cost or sudden differences that alerted me to the fact I was doing something right.

Instead, I held those ideas as tightly as possible to the forefront of my mind, and mentally spammed the upgrade button as fast as I could.

Inari floated into the center of the room, rising into the air and slowly spinning in place as energy flew into it from the very air, the walls, and the crops themselves. My mana was everywhere, lacing everything in sight inside of my very self and it illustrated that fact quite clearly as it emerged from every individual plant, tree, and rows of soil in visible streamers.

The blue ribbons, laced with purples, blacks, greens and yellows, slammed into Inari and began forcibly feeding it mana at a rapid rate. Nearly 300 mana left my pool, far more than I’d intended on spending, but that was the cost of experimentation and quality. A white, pearlescent sort of mist began erupting from the ghost, covering the ground and spreading out as it continued to spew forth from the ethereal form.

Its see-through body shimmered, rippling as though it wasn’t entirely there and yet, simultaneously, gained solidity as its mana density increased.

The ghost had been no more than a few feet tall (lacking feet and all that) before the start of the transformation, and rather than growing taller it seemed to be… shifting. Multiple limbs sprouted from its body, and its once wispy bottom half grew legs. Just not human legs.

Its body slowly descended, and as the mist slowly began to clear a space around Inari’s new body its form became clearer.

Four paws touched down and into the soil as its much more physical body made itself known, while nine large white tails quickly darted back and forth behind its body. White fur lined its entire body, and baleful red eyes, brimming with intelligence after its rebirth, witnessed the world around it as though truly seeing it for the first time.

Inari was now a massive white fox. A nine-tailed fox. Which, from my limited remembrance, Inari was a Shinto spirit or god or relative of a god who helped with agriculture-type things, amongst several other areas of governance, and in some tales rode a white fox.

Even more amusingly, though Inari was the kami of foxes, or god/spiritual patron, the ghost's new form of a fox was quite fitting. In the olden days, foxes were seen as both a symbol of benevolence and malevolence. They were either the worst kind of trickster, capable of assuming human form and playing with the minds of the unaware, or being friends and helpers to those they were close to.

Granted, that was all mythology and, from my memories, were just beliefs. It was interesting to see those ideas and tales shaping the monster before me.

Inari let out a playful chitter and began bounding through the field, prancing from place to place and flying through the air. That wasn’t even a euphemism, Inari was literally flying, the laws of gravity ceasing to be important to… him? It? Her?

Its gender was unimportant, I supposed. Far more important was the fact I now had a flying nine-tailed fox spirit romping about Elysium. A little mythological crossover never hurt anybody, right?

Eventually Inari’s playful flight and prancing session ended, and it began rounding up the skeletal ‘farmers’ and giving them the boot. As in, Inari pushed them all into the corner and made ‘shooing’ gestures with its paws. Damn fox was already trying to boss me around. If it didn’t want the [Skeletons] there, how was it going to farm anything? It had paws!

As though sensing my dubious thoughts, it waved an errant paw and several of the nearby matured crops dug themselves out of the dirt and floated away to the small storage sheds I’d made for each crop. Ah.

That makes sense, I suppose.

I allowed the [Skeletons] to return to me as motes of mana, and let Inari have free run of the place. You got this, champ!

A quick [Observe] confirmed what I suspected - it’s race had changed to [Kami]. The spirit of agriculture now had free reign of the farm, and I hoped it would bring about some positive changes. Ideally, I could let some folks down here now and with Inari’s help nobody would accidentally unleash an undead plague on the town.

Hopefully.

Sometimes these things just happen, you know?

Jokes aside, the first few visits of normal, non-adventurer folk, should they ever actually be allowed down here, will be strictly supervised. Not because I’m particularly doubting the average villager’s intentions, but because the risk of them dying if Inari doesn’t do its job is significantly higher. If Inari does what I sincerely hope and expect he’s going to do, without an active command from me to be specific, then I’ll have far fewer concerns allowing villagers into Elysium.

I was content with watching Inari for a few minutes, observing the kami frolic amongst the plants and, despite its large size, not trample a single one. The playful spirit, now that it could actually interact with the flora, was hellbent on sniffing every single crop and tree and random weed that existed in the farm.

I’ll be very curious to see how things turn out.

My attention shifted away from Elysium and to my crafters. My smiths had learned much in the prior weeks, and enchanting seemed like it was an inevitability, rather than a faraway fantasy. Assisting that goal was the discovery of new metals - my delvers and miners had been hard at work. Well, they were all delvers at the minimum, after realizing they could detect metal veins at a distance I made it a goal to have all of them be at least at that level of upgrade. A significant amount of my influence and Dungeon expansion had actually been directly involved in spreading through the tunnel they’d made.

As they spread out further and further to pursue more veins, the difficulty level of bringing back the ore to the Dungeon to assimilate became harder and harder, so I created a sort of central tunnel in between all the veins, allowing for the mining skeletons to not have to travel as far while still being cost-efficient in regards to influence used. It amused me that, if someone could see the entirety of my Dungeon’s expansion, then it would look like some sort of weird pyramid-like shape attached to a really long stick.

Idle musings aside, I’d discovered several new metals along my mining journey. Before, all I had was iron and coal. Decent starting materials, especially since it allowed me to create steel, but not very useful otherwise for weapon-making or magical testing by themselves. The veins nearest them and the next ones I explored turned out to be a combination of tin, copper, and some mixed silver and gold, though those weren’t particularly large.

The exciting thing about those new materials was mostly in regards to what the skeletal smiths had achieved with them since. Copper, as it turned out, was great at transmitting mana, unlike iron. Silver and gold were both also great, but pure silver, as it turned out, had by far the highest capacity and rate at which mana could flow through it.

That sounded very similar to electricity, my memories said, but I couldn’t exactly verify that. I could probably cast a lightning bolt (or, specifically, get my shaman to do it) at various poles of metal, but seeing exactly which one conducted it better was beyond me. My smiths could probably figure it out, but enchanting and mana was far more interesting to me at the moment than relearning resistance and amps and voltage.

Though, when I say enchanting, I suppose I should be slightly more specific: rather than taking a weapon that has already been finished and applying something to it afterward, when I say enchanting I’m talking about applying runes filled with conductive metals that allow mana to be channeled into the weapon to achieve some specific effect. Maybe the other form of enchanting also exists in this world, but without gaining summonable enchanters I have absolutely no clue how it would be done.

So for now I experiment (the smiths do, anyway) with various types of runes etched into weapons and filled with one of the three conductive metals. Despite the runes and their fillings being attached to something like steel, which is significantly less capable of letting mana flow through it, the runes still work perfectly. As I would hope, because having a sword made entirely of silver would be both incredibly expensive and less than effective.

Thus far their testing hadn’t amounted to anything particularly amazing - likely because none of us knew what runes did what. Any effects they might have found or achieved some success with was from completely random testing. They’d used the runic lettering of the local language and had some results, but nothing concrete enough to say we’d become full-on enchanters. Swords that were hot to touch or ice-cold, minor things that really didn’t amount to much. I suspected there was either a separate section of language used just for this or some specific wording that we didn’t know how to use.

I posted a sign out front asking to observe an enchanted item, and hopefully in the chaos of dealing with the Silver-Tier team’s bodies Dutch would be able to show me something, or was still willing to. My observations led me to believe he was deeply pragmatic, and he spent most of his time simply observing and learning about me as best he could when he was inside, barring him training or protecting his younger recruits.

Speaking of recruits, John was actually allowed to enter on his own these days. I think Dutch had given him instructions to re-verify the Rule 2 was still the same every time he entered, but beyond that the boy would come in and had actually grown enough to take on the first room with enough time.

He had to leave and re-enter multiple times, but he was doing quite admirably. Their many ventures and trips had netted them quite a few [Mana-Rich Fruit] and low tier potions, ingredients, and random enchanted items. I think the way Box enchants items is different than what I’m doing, however, because I’ve tried to see if there are any visible markings or stitched runes in the clothes and weapons that drop, but so far I haven’t seen any sort of hint that could help me in my own efforts.

For lack of better terminology, I’m just lumping it all under enchanting until someone tells me otherwise. If I do learn of an alternate method, I’ll likely call it runesmithing or something. Until I do, however, it shall just be enchanting for ease of mind.

It pleased me to actually see the growth occurring amongst the trainees brought in to trawl my practice rooms.

In fact, if I could expand my Life-Aligned practice rooms I would, but despite my prodigious amounts of mana regeneration, it's all going towards upping my defenses still. A team of Gold-Tiers, even ones not as skilled as Dutch, will likely be capable of reaching my core at this point. I haven’t finished the third floor yet, though it's nearly done, and when it is I’ll be much more confident.

I doubt I’ll be able to progress much further with my enchanting unless one of the smiths makes an unexpected breakthrough, so hopefully I either get really lucky or Dutch pulls through for me.

Moving on from that, if I’m not mistaken I have both trait points I need to spend.

Perusing the options Box has given me I see many that might be helpful - several other alignments with the more common elements that also give bonuses to certain things like better control over fire and its temperatures, more refined control of earth shaping via [Dungeon Manipulation] and a slightly reduced cost for created things that come from under the earth’s surface.

As always, there are no specific Death-Aligned options and very few Life-Aligned options.

At the moment my Life-Alignment is actually only a single boost behind my Death-Alignment, and despite the lack of recent advances both have been doing just fine. The recent levels have also revealed some new monster summons that are, to say the least, quite interesting.

One thing I’ve noticed is that all monster summons I’m given are at their weakest form, every time. The monsters I’m given as I level are monsters that, essentially, upgrade into stronger forms faster. For example, for a skeleton pack to be upgraded into something truly fierce, it would take several upgrades and then they would be semi-scary.

The newer ones would take but a single upgrade to reach that same level.

I still need to do a full review of the new monsters later, there were so many I struggled to do more than skim their names. Passing level five seemed to be a benchmark of some sort, as the tier of monsters went up a noticeable amount as well.

Back to the traits, before I get too sidetracked. Even though it doesn’t look the greatest immediately, evening out my alignments would please my inner sense of balance and meticulousness and in the future it will be great. That and I like symmetrical things.

I invested my point and received my perk.

[Perk Acquired:]

[Systemic Evolution:]

Life isn’t always easy. In fact, Life is quite hard.

Adapt. Survive. Overcome.

This is the mantra Life in your Dungeon now follows. As your Life-Aligned monsters and flora are destroyed, they learn and evolve. When they rematerialize, they will have gained an incremental resistance to that which killed them.

In combination with your other perks, they will also adapt better to changes in tactics used by invaders and learn how to counter specific strategies faster.

Life-Mana Alignment has been increased!

In tandem with [Let There Be Life] this perk actually worked even better, as it said in the description. This perk was all about evolving and adapting to weaknesses, and [Let There Be Life] was about growth and bolstering it. With [Systemic Evolution], that growth just happened to now include their ability to counter glaring weaknesses that would otherwise be easily exploited. At the bare minimum, it would make them less likely to fall victim to something easily avoided after dying to it several times.

Hopefully the [Zombies] and [Skeletons] will learn that sticking together in clusters simply makes them larger targets for Dutch…

I was quite pleased with my purchases so far. Despite the lack of a broken perk like [For I Am Legion] that works with Life-Aligned monsters, they were on the right track towards becoming a threat in their own right. Death-Aligned monsters held the the most benefits right now, but more and more combinations were becoming available, and with their Life counterparts’ potency rising to match the other, mixing and matching the two was looking very promising.

But then, as always, Box decided it was prime time to surprise me.

[Life-Alignment and Death-Alignment equalized]

Despite the imbalance since shortly after your first perk was selected, you’ve worked tirelessly to bring your alignment back into harmony. You have invested a significant amount of effort and hard-earned traits to achieve this, and a reward is due for your actions.

[Perk Acquired:]

[Does This Unit Have A Soul?:]

You have invested heavily into making your monsters more capable by strengthening their ability to grow and think. You have created multiple monsters in your short tenure with a strong focus on independence and the ability to think for themselves.

All monsters gain increased intelligence.

The amount gained pertains to their rank. Once a monster is granted a high enough rank, in combination with enough time and experience, they can gain wisdom, self-reflection, and the ability to grow mentally, not just physically.

At the highest tiers of monster you will find your generals, your commanders, and your strategists that will help lead your unending army of cursed Life and creeping Death to grand victories.

Strength of arms is only as effective as the strength of the mind that wields it. Learn well, and destroy all who oppose you.

I am quite surprised, and most certainly pleased by this development. It specifically mentions strategists or commanders to lead forces and make them even more effective, and while that is both great and incredibly powerful, it fails to mention the one thing I’ve been working on the most recently.

Crafting.

Yes, I wanted my bosses and certain monsters to be able to not need me to watch over them all the time, so that was part of my focus when creating them. Omen can’t speak, but to make best use of his variety of subtle and not so subtle talents, he needed to be very smart. Biyaban is the incarnation of a monster known for its cunning. Inari is a trickster spirit god thing who, while I haven’t been able to combat test it yet, will likely be incredibly annoying to try and fight. It can fly for crying out loud.

But this is an intelligence boost across the board. Meaning that my smiths, currently working hard at experimentation with runes and materials, will grow even smarter as they receive upgrades. Even my delvers will learn the most optimal ways to mine and ferry ores, increasing their efficiency.

At first glance, it already seems good, but the harder I think about it, the better and better it seems to be.

Despite my inability to ‘speak’ properly, the more intelligent monsters I have the easier it will be to get ideas and specific things across, allowing me to create plans that don’t require my direct oversight at all times.

My memories clearly indicate that ‘employees’ with competent and talented supervisors or managers will always outperform those that have none at all. The skill and knowledge of what to focus on, what works best, and the best ways to tackle problems are invaluable skills to have, and not something that every single monster (employee) can be expected to obtain.

With enough intelligence, however, all I’d need is one who can lead the rest of whatever group needs the assistance and there you have it.

My mind was alight with possibilities.

Not only that, but Katrina might actually get someone to talk to. Sure, her shaman bodyguard can speak, but their limits become clearer the more time I spent watching them interact.

One thing the perk specifically mentioned was ‘wisdom’ and the ability to grow as time goes on, which is a major component of most living beings. One thing that had become clear was that any knowledge the shaman had before was all it was going to have - it was smart enough to communicate, but trying to have any sort of philosophical discussion with it, without me guiding its responses, was doomed to failure.

It just didn’t see the point in looking further into matters it considered unimportant. It was a creation of my mana and even if killed would return after a certain amount of time, and its brain just didn’t need to worry about those other inconsequential things, like which afterlife it was going to.

If it was upgraded enough now, and learned enough, it might actually be capable of reading about them and deciding it likes one over the other, rather than simply saying ‘it doesn’t apply to me’ like a brick wall.

Even Biyaban was limited to some capacity, though less obviously.

This changed things, but much like the perk I purchased, didn’t really have an immediate effect. As time passes, it will become more and more apparent, I hope.

In order to keep myself aligned with both Life and Death I elected to hold onto my one trait point - I could spend it on one of the other Alignments as well but none of them are particularly impactful, and I’d rather focus on what I have and save the trait for a rainy day.

Speaking of Katrina, I finally utilized the clause in [Deal With The Devil] that said I could give her mana for something other than using Dungeon skills. She’d figured out how to actually use said mana for ‘upgrading’ herself as it were, and things went from there. I can safely conclude that either Dungeon mana is incredibly ‘dense’ per point spent, which would make sense to a certain degree, or the early levels are very easy to power through.

To be safe, we started with 10 mana. Katrina said she felt a big difference, so we tried again with 20 mana, and she leveled. Over the course of the two weeks she leveled up eight times. The poor girl was stuck with me, even though she technically chose this, I don’t see how much choice she really had. The name of the perk said it all.

Name: Katrina Desdemona

Title: The Queen of Misery [Source: ???]

Class: Apprentice of the Cycle

Active Effects: ???, Owned by a Dungeon

Level: 12

Stats: [+]

Perks:

Signed The Dotted Line: You can be granted the various abilities the Dungeon has to help its growth and expansion. Your growth is affected by the type of Dungeon you are contracted to. The Dungeon can invest mana into you to further your growth.

Cursed Bloodline: At some point in the past, one of your ancestors crossed a God. They’ve placed a curse on your bloodline. Perhaps it can be lifted by another powerful enough entity?

Abilities:

Draining Bolt: Unleashes a bolt of entropic energy that siphons life energy from its target to you. Enemies afflicted with this spell are more difficult to heal than normal.

Minor Rejuvenation: Adds a small amount of potent Life-Aligned mana to a target lasting up to 8 hours, allowing them to heal slightly faster, as well as boosting their stamina and mana recovery by a small amount.

Ebb and Flow: The very tides themselves, though simple, have immense impact on numerous things around the world. Just as they bring life, so too do the cold waters of the depths end it in the blink of an eye. When this spell is cast at an enemy, water is forcibly ripped from their body, and if cast enough, leaves them as a desiccated corpse. When cast on an ally, they are bathed in a cocoon of life-giving water that reduces their damage taken and slowly heals their wounds.

Flames of the Cycle: The world itself shall burn to the ground one day. Life shall rise from the ashes, renewed and invigorated as the flames of the cycle allow it to be reborn anew. This spell immolates your target in the fires of the final judgment, and deals damage based on their karma and intentions.

A man who murdered one person, and enjoyed it and intends on killing more to derive pleasure from the act, will be turned to ash in short order. A man who killed someone by accident or in defense of another and feels guilt and remorse shall take no damage.

Entropic Shield: Despite its inherent effect of slowly withering everything to dust, entropy is not actively evil. It simply is.

You learn to wield this infinite and inevitable force, surrounding yourself with a thin barrier of entropy that eats and decays anything that attempts to harm you. Slower projectiles or spells are weakened the most.

Her stats had risen significantly.

Where she was on the scale of John versus Dutch I didn’t know, but I’d say she had rocketed above John pretty quickly. Not that I really wanted her to fight - that wasn’t the point. But keeping her trapped inside the Dungeon for several weeks was clearly driving her a little batty, and beyond assigning her an honor guard and the large amounts of attention that would bring, the only way for her to be protected was to simply be strong.

So Katrina got to practice her new abilities against the monsters of our home. Poor little [Skeletons] never knew what was coming.

Speaking of making sure people felt safe, my Rules of Fair Trade received yet another update. After adding the changes from before, they looked like this, but they were geared towards people running the Dungeon, not people who might want to investigate Elysium or the kitchens or something.

[Rules of Fair Trade:]

To those who are willing to bargain, I am willing to trade. Choose a rule, and be rewarded.

First: If you enter with intent to destroy, harm, or otherwise affect the Dungeon core in a negative manner, I shall do my utmost to kill, maim, permanently disfigure, or otherwise ruin the life of those who seek my core. This Rule is non-optional.

If you die using this Rule, your body shall be raised via Necromancy and used to bolster the defenses.

Rewards Decreased.

Secondly: If you have no desire to destroy, harm , or otherwise affect the Dungeon core in a negative manner, be bound to that promise. In exchange, I will do my utmost not to kill you. There will be no final blows, no intentionally mortal strikes. If you are defeated, then that is the end, and you may leave, or get up and try again.

Should the worst happen, and someone dies, they shall be returned to the entrance in an honored coffin, and will be allowed to be taken from the Dungeon to be buried as they wish.

Rewards Increased. A reward will be granted based on the number of foes beaten and on time spent.

Thirdly: To the weak, to the cowardly, to the fearful: The right door shall be blocked, and only the left shall open. Find your courage, face your fears, and rise.

Should the worst happen, and someone dies, they shall be returned to the entrance in an honored coffin, and will be allowed to be taken from the Dungeon to be buried as they wish.

Rewards Increased if courage is shown.

Fourth: To those who wish to explore Elysium, or the other non-combat areas of the Dungeon, the practice areas and the main entrance shall be locked, but no monster will attack you except for in self defense, or if you attempt to intentionally disrupt the Dungeon’s efforts.

Bonus rewards will be provided for providing assistance to the non-combat entities.

My [Skeletal Smithing Crew] was on the second floor, right next to my core area, so they were more difficult to get to. I didn’t have anywhere incredibly convenient to put them either, but I had a plan for that.

Once I finished the third floor and moved on, I would separate the stairs from the smithing area so it wasn’t a direct shortcut, then make a passageway only those using the fourth Rule could use that led straight to them. Those using Rule 2 would also be able to get there if they passed through the first and second floors, and to make it fair I think I’ll make their entrance before Omen’s room.

That just felt a little rude.

Which isn’t to say I was going to leave them utterly helpless if an adventurer decided to get a little aggressive - Omen was able to phase through walls after all, much like the other ghosts and wraiths. Plus I decided to leave them as primarily ‘scientists’. The ones on that floor would do all of the enchanting and rune tests, while a new set of smiths would be deeper, once again next to my core room, and would pump out the actual gear for my minions and potentially for me to trade.

I found that I was looking forward to making a trading bazaar of some sort, though it would also have to be well-defended just in case someone tried something. The rarer pieces could likely be held in my storage room and teleported when they were ready to trade, but people would obviously need to see some examples of the work they were bartering for.

That was another future project - for now, since I had no idea how to mint money and make sure it was entirely believable (I’m pretty sure I could, but the risk was just slightly higher than I felt comfortable with) I elected to give Katrina some minor items to trade with in town.

She was going to completely cover herself up and be the ‘mysterious trader’ type. I didn’t expect that facade to last long, but once again, I couldn’t keep her trapped in here for the rest of her life. I mean, I could, but I wasn’t that rude.

Plus, outside of the very first time it occurred, we need to test if she can be teleported back to the core room from outside the Dungeon. If she can, and I can somehow be aware of her health and danger level, then I could easily just bring her back home.

Perhaps…

Fairies, when upgraded, retain a relatively small size and could possibly travel with her. If they were upgraded enough and had enough intelligence to do so, it should be possible for them to mentally shout ‘DANGER’ at me if something comes up, and I can bring her, and possibly the fairy home.

More things to test later.

Oh, and before I completely forget and utterly invalidate the main reason for the newest Rule, I added stairs to the cliffs overlooking Elysium. For the elderly folk, I had the smiths whip up a pretty quick pulley system and a small wood platform with rails to go along with it. If someone wanted down, they could be lowered and raised by skeleton power, if they trusted me enough. I doubted people would use it, but I felt compelled to add it.

I should see if I could get some sort of engineering skeleton… That would be pretty great. I was also decidedly feeling my lack of a tailoring skeleton at the moment. I’d been able to patch Katrina’s dress, or rather, I’d eaten some of it, then spewed out some fabric for her, had the smiths make her some small tools, and she fixed it up herself.

She knew the basics but wasn’t an expert, and while I could make wonky looking cloaks or blankets with a head hole, finely crafted clothing was out of the picture for me. I’d probably have to sit a bunch of [Skeletons] down with some cloth, string, and needles and just let them go and see if I get them then.

In fact, I probably have to convince Box that I can use it to kill humans somehow… Cursed clothing? Being able to make clothes would make, in the future, my ability to disguise someone, or something, as being not of the Dungeon after all. Little Red Riding Hood would never need to know her relative was actually a zombie if we just covered up all the damage, after all…

Well, that’s a terrible example, but it gets the point across.

[New Monster Type Added!]

Oh fuck you Box.

[Skeletal Tailoring Crew]

Cost: 17 Mana

Comes with all necessary crafting stations. This crew is capable of making clothing from soft materials, and applying varying effects to them as their knowledge and understanding grows.

That at least explains how I can get some of the other crafting options to be made… All I have to do is think really hard about how I’m going to murder people with it.

It’s quite lucky for me that my memories indicate literally anything can be used to kill someone with enough effort, and with the addition of magic it can quite literally be anything, so getting the rest of the crafting types that I want should be a cakewalk.

Adding that to my growing mental checklist, I briefly examined my third floor to check its progress. Apparently, applying a room type to a room that spans the entire floor it's on takes a while to actually take effect.

Naturally, a thick layer of fog covered the entire thing. It wouldn’t be one of my rooms without it, after all. Large trees emerged from the dense mist, sprouting above it and looking like a field of large green mushrooms when looked at from above. Thick vines wove through the upper branches of the trees and either worked their way down the trunks, or simply dropped into the nothingness below them.

Below the fog, tree trunks either sank directly into the water or were resting atop their own little islands, surrounded by water ranging from merely ankle deep to ‘you’ll be swimming if you take this path’ deep.

Solid ground was incredibly hard to come by, as the presence of so much water turned the earth to mud and silt. Shuffling shapes could be barely made out as the presence of my monsters made themselves known, the ominous sound of bones clicking and rattling gasps emerging from the blanket of mist, sure to frighten all but the hardiest of adventurers.

Likely to be unseen by most, but several pools of water, separated from the others, had bloated [Zombies] and a couple of rotting carcasses from the hunters' ventures thrown into them. While I’m sure the water was already incredibly contaminated, I wanted to see if Box would understand what I was trying to do and give me either some sort of bacterial ability, or to modify my existing [Zombies] into something even more infectious.

I’d only recently started, but I thought it was rather promising. Although, seeing as to how I was in an enclosed system, I didn’t really have any insects. Putrefaction should still occur, unless I’m also completely ‘germ free’ which I highly doubt. Bacteria should still be in here from people bringing it in to just simply spawning in with the rotting zombies.

I’ll find out, I suppose.

Glancing back out over the green and watery hellscape I’ve created, I couldn't help but cackle like a madman.

Despite my desire not to kill those that don’t deserve it, imagining some asshole who thinks they’re the hottest thing since the wheel attempting to clear this brings me joy.