A small sphere of pure white marble hovered in the center of a small cavern, the walls of which were made of black marble shot through with various colors. It was called ‘nebula marble’, Gire had brought a small orb of it back from one of his excursions almost half a month ago, and Shale loved the way its white orb contrasted with the black marble. It made them feel like a small star sitting in the vastness of space.

Gire flittered about nearby in the shape of a small dust devil. He was an ifrit, a spirit of heat and air. He often scouted the area outside the dungeon for Shale, who couldn’t see anything outside their sphere of influence.

Today Gire had brought back something new; it was a feather in gold and blue, and it fluttered around inside his swirling winds in beautifully mesmerizing twisting patterns.

“What is it?” Shale asked its bond.

“It’s a chooker feather,” Gire responded.

Shale gave an exasperated sigh. “But what is a chooker.”

Gire stopped swirling, his form taking on that of a small man, dark of skin and wearing loose clothes. “I don’t know!” He said excitedly as he waved the feather about. “Some kind of lizard thing I’ve never seen before! Lots of people were chasing them, so it was easy to grab this feather when it fell off the big one!”

“How big was the big one? Can you show me?” Shale asked excitedly.

Gire nodded and brought up his free hand, creating an illusion of the drake the feather had fallen from. Shale watched excitedly, the reptile looked like it’d be a great addition to the dungeon, it could already see how they’d modify it to fit.

“Give me the feather! Quick quick!” they said eagerly.

With an elegant little bow Gire dropped the feather on the floor beneath the core where it immediately sank into the marble with a tiny ripple.

[Pattern Obtained: Chooker]

With a thought and an effort of will Shale created a chooker. The small wyvern-like creature slowly took form out of the mana that was poured into it. Shale had decided to keep the blue and gold color scheme of the feather, and had not yet modified the drake to be anything more. It stood there for a moment, reptilian eyes taking in the room. Then it turned to Shale and, looking up at the core, it ducked in subservience.

“Chook chook chook,” it said tamely.

Shale was fascinated by the lizard, they could see so many possibilities. Lengthening the claws, increase the mass, and sharpening the teeth were just the tips of the iceberg. Something in their magic resonated inside the chooker, and Shale could feel that this was a monster that could evolve. That was rare, it didn’t have any evolving monsters. The slimes didn’t count, their only evolutionary option being oozes. Shale looked at the beast and was giddy with excitement. They couldn’t wait to build a floor around this creature. In fact, they decided that the seventh floor would work nicely. It was just a blank slate right now.

Turning their attention toward the seventh (and currently final) floor, Shale looked at it with a critical eye. It was a large network of twisting caves and tunnels. That wouldn’t do, no; instead, they should build an environment more suited to the creature. Shale could tell that the chookers preferred dense forest and underbrush to hide in, so they began to carve out a simply massive cavern instead.

The new cavern stretched the whole length of the floor, almost 550 yards in both length and width, with a ceiling 25 yards high. Shale saturated the stone with their aura as they went, ensuring there would be no collapse as it strengthened beyond its normal properties. Next came the dirt, a solid five yards of dirt covered the floor of the cavern and Shale began to sculpt and mold the terrain until it was uneven and hilly.

Looking at the current landscaping with satisfaction, Shale began to seed plants into the area, starting with the trees. It only had a few types available, all of which it’d been seeded with by the original founders of Runic Rock. So it was a forest of Oak, interspersed with a few apple and peach trees. Shale began to will the seeds to grow faster and they felt the mana flowing out of them. The seeds sprouted and the trees grew, Shale kept going until they reached their full, mature height.

Shale then started seeding the underbrush. Mostly small shrubs, however Gire had stolen some berries of different kinds from some garden or another, so it had blackberry, blueberry, red and black current, and a few others to place. Like the trees, they accelerated the growth, leaving large thickets of impassible dense shrubbery and large piles of thorny berry bushes.

Finally came the small plants and grasses, which Shale blanketed the floor with. Looking around Shale was pleased with its work. There was only one remaining problem. The room was dark. The plants could live off mana, but it was more efficient to provide them with light. Then again, maybe Shale should leave it dark, giving the chookers the cover of darkness might be a good edge for them. Shale could tell that the beasts had good night vision, for all that they were a daytime creature.

Considering the options, Shale finally settled on creating a faux night sky. They peppered the ceiling with tiny runes of light, creating twinkling ‘stars’ just above the canopy. It wouldn’t be enough for a human to see by, but it’d be enough for the chookers.

Pleased, Shale turned back to the chooker in its sanctum. Carefully it started making little edits. The claws and teeth became sharp and dense, now capable of puncturing metal given enough force. The scales became hard and thick enough to turn aside a blade. Muscles became more dense, more efficient, allowing greater leaps and higher strength. The feathers became more muted browns and greens to better blend in with the underbrush. Then just a slight change to the eyes, making them even sharper, better able to see be it in darkness or light. Then Shale killed the creature, gaining the new pattern.

With another expenditure of power they began seeding the forest with this new menace, keeping the population mostly male, but with a few females thrown in. Soon the area was crawling with the creatures, their rapid fire chooking filling the silence. Content with the number of chookers, Shale decided to take it a step further, and added small rodents and bugs, giving the forest all the nighttime sounds and noises. Finally, they were content in all but two aspects. The floor needed a boss, and loot.

Creating another chooker, Shale began to pour mana into it. They weren’t looking for anything fancy, not this time. Instead they just wanted a big, mean, bull of a chooker. When they were done it stood six feet tall at the shoulder with claws like vicious scythes and teeth almost five inches long. It let out a deep, rumbling chook. It was perfect. Shale moved it to the forest floor, creating a giant nest at the far end for it to live in.

Now for loot. The loot that Shale had been providing didn’t seem to be interesting to the adventurers, they’d started leaving large portions of it behind. Shale didn’t like that. If they didn’t like the loot they’d stop delving, and then Shale’s progress would stall. But what could Shale give them that they wanted? Adventurers always took the mana stones, and the money. So maybe more of those? Dissatisfied, Shale set loot seeds in various locations, setting them to randomly generate mana crystals and coins for the most part.

“Gire,” Shale said.

“Yeah?” asked the ifrit.

“We need better loot,” Shale explained.

“Yeah,” agreed Gire with a sad sigh.

The two sat in silence for a while, before Gire spoke again. “What about upgrading the mana stones?”

“Too expensive,” grunted Shale.

“You’re a miser, it’s not like we’d be destitute,” Gire argued.

“It’s ten thousand essence, that’s basically all we have,” Shale shot back.

“Alright, then maybe something else? A new metal perhaps?” Gire suggested.

“All the good metals cost even more than the stones,” shale replied glumly.

“Well, there’s got to be something we could purchase,” Gire said, even as he shifted back into his dust devil form.

“We can afford plants, but people aren’t taking those,” shale complained.

“Apparently there are no alchemists in the town to use them… What if we bought alchemical items instead?” Gire suggested as he swirled around the core.

Shale gave a dissatisfied grunt. “Alchemical items are expensive.”

“Everything is expensive, we have to spend essence sometime,” Gire rebutted.

“Fine, but only one!”

“Three! We need variety.”

“Two, and that’s the maximum,” Shale said firmly.

“Fine, two,” Gire agreed as he swirled down to the ground and started kicking up dust.

Shale gave an internal sigh and opened the Essence Store. They quickly filtered their search to alchemical items and came up with a whole slew of options. The healing and Mana potions were marked as popular, so they considered them carefully before discarding the mana potions. It already had mana stones, no need to double down. “Healing potions and what else?” they asked Gire.

“Um… I don’t know… Maybe something like a buff?” the ifrit suggested.

Shale turned back to the screen and tweaked the filter. The list shortened considerably, unfortunately most items it contained were much more expensive. Still, there were a few that might be viable. They scrolled through the offering for a moment before selecting another item. Then, with what amounted to physical pain, Shale clicked the purchase button.

[Pattern Obtained: Least Potion of Healing]

[Pattern Obtained: Least Strength Booster]

“It’s done,” Shale said wearily, even as they modified loot spawns for the seventh floor once more.

“Good! Let’s hope they like it!” Gire replied hopefully.

“They’d better,” Shale muttered sullenly before turning its attention to the groups currently delving. Everything was mostly the same as it left them, though it could see another group squeezing herb slimes. “Why are they squeezing the goop out of slimes?”

“The farmer who owns the Chookers is using it for fertilizer or something,” Gire responded as he swooped about the chamber.

Shale pondered that for a few moments, then gave the mental equivalent of a shrug. “People are weird,” it said finally.

“yeah, they are,” Gire agreed.