Once there was a young artificer named noob. He was obsessed with a single monster he called “the cube”.

Every day he would toil away, his life spent making this cube stronger. Using his knowledge to make a weapon the little warmonger.

THIS CUBE IS INVINCIBLE HEY!

When he was done, he brought his cube to a dungeon. Ignoring the monsters that would a bludgeon.

Oh Dungeon! Give Life to this cube he called. I’ve worked on it till I’ve grown bald.

WORKED ON IT TILL BALD YEAY!

The dungeon gave him his wish – though his motive, the weird old artificers never gave – the bish (the bish).

AND THEN THE ERA OF TERROR BEGANNNN ~

All the adventurers are dead! Thorugh halls of chaos they did bled! Covering the walls in red. Tons of poor sods this cube did behead!

Oh hey! You Over there, I’ll have it be known the women you wed. I’ve decided to take her to bed! What’s that? You have an Axehead! Twas only a jest you – should put that thing away I’m sorry I’ll stop the song. Yes. Yes I understand. Yes stop waving it around I’ll be good. I’ll finish the story normally no need for threats of violence it was just a joke.

Anyways…Or so the story goes... Either way the cube is the only dungeon boss that has never been beaten. Ever. Mini cubes have been made after the original cubes likeness however there has only ever been one cube.

And that’s why adventurers everywhere know not to mock the cubes. For even the weaker copy’s have taken a careless adventures life.

Similar to dragons, adventurers who’ve slain a cube copy have called themselves CubeSlayers and laugh about their own strength despite never having touched the original. Despite shaking in fear at the thought of facing the original.

What? You have a question? No, I will not go face the original m’self that’s for dumb adventures.

You’re an adventurer? And what a mighty one you are. Yes, I should have known. The axe and all. Very nice axe by the way. I can tell you take good care of it. I shall take my leave of this establishment while I still have m' limbs. Thanks for having me.

Excerpt from the amateur bard tale and song “Oh great and terrible cube” as performed in the dungeon town Farlen.

I think I’m reasonably happy with how the flying crystals are set up currently. They aren’t 100% at the level that the other’s monsters are individually, but they are no longer pathetically weak. The bigger…greater version of the snakes are starting to shape up into being a real threat. And I’m sure the smaller versions can harass beginners.

What’s next on my TODO list? I feel like I should rank tasks by how important they are…maybe when they start getting out of hand, for now, I think I’ll return to the strange life crystal. Life beacon?

I want to figure out how it's healing stuff.

Then I’ll work on making a pair for the flying crystals. Some sort of damage sponge that can harass adventurers from below while the crystal rains death from above.

Content with his plan Innearth started studying the Crystal tree.

How effective is it? What is the range of healing and how fast does it work?

Making the fastest, cheapest monsters possible, Innearth spawned a fire and a water slime right beside the crystal tower. Immediately they engaged in a furious struggle for supremacy before the fire slime emerged victorious, heavily damp, but still alive.

Hmmm…neither showed any sign of being healed when fighting and the fire slime seems hurt now, but it's still not being healed…difference between them and Pool Snek being healed is a crystal body? So, if I had to guess, the crystal tree can only heal crystal monsters.

There’s an easy way to check.

Spawning 2 crystal snakes beside the tower – one an old iteration with liquid metal and a pure head, the second a new model with liquid crystal and Crystal core – he asked them to stab each other.

Seeming hesitant over attacking one of their own, each snake stared at one another and then apologetically stabbed their heads into each others’ sides.

Nearly simultaneously, the two snakes’ attacks landed. The old iteration got pierced immediately, a small gash appearing as the attack slipped between some scales and let liquid metal start to leak out. In comparison, the newer version resisted the attack, each thrust bouncing off its hard body.

Seeming impatient to fulfil Innearth’s task, the newer crystal snake relaxed its body, purposefully making that portion weaker and letting the strike finally land.

Next asking the snakes to move closer and further away from the crystal tower, he watched, attempting to get some sort of basis for how effective the healing was.

Both snakes were slowly healed, the newer/more crystalline version being healed significantly more effectively. The weird part of this phenomenon however was the rate or efficiency didn’t seem to increase or decrease based on distance. Instead after moving roughly 3 meters away the effect broke. And, returning to the tree, a connection was made again around 2 meters away.

These values were slightly different for both of the snakes – the more crystalline version extending the range by a small amount, but those two distances seemed pretty set in stone only varying by a cm or two. Once the connection was made, a passive regeneration commenced that slowed down more and more the closer to being fully healed they were.

Honestly?

Not bad. Assuming all my monsters have crystal parts I might as well plant these bad boys everywhere and benefit. I’d leave them at special areas to make it “fairer” to adventurers, but, the regeneration doesn’t seem to be strong or fast enough to break a fight…it seems closer to a way to fix em’ after the fact. Or maybe let them retreat, heal and then reengage a few minutes later.

Satisfied by his test he tried adding these crystal trees to each room. Working his way through his dungeon, he added one to each smaller room and 2-3 for the larger combined ones.

The regeneration fields did not seem to overlap sadly. Only a single connection could be made by each beacon so Innearth had to throw away the budding plans to make a super regeneration ring.

I could have made a circle of beacons that monsters could stand in to be rapidly healed. TCH.

I think I’m finally understanding what Amy was talking about when she mentioned biomes being important. I’ll see if there’s anything else I can do.

Innearth: Hey Amy! How has your day been? I don’t want to seem like I just message you when I need help, but I think I’m getting the hang of biome creation. I found a regeneration plant and am working towards adding it to my whole dungeon. Do you have any more tips?

Amy: Oh wow, a regeneration plant? How does it work? Touch? Proximity? Does it need to be broken or is it a constant source of regeneration?

Amy: I’d love a sample if you’re willing to provide one. That being said…One plant does not make it a biome. A biome is something that feels unique. You need to add enough stuff of a mana type that most of the environmental mana is of that flavour.

Innearth: I’d be more than willing to provide one of them. It's really easy for me to make, just life mana and crystal mana. Seems to be the same plant every time. I’m not sure how useful you’ll find it though. The healing only effects crystal monsters.

Amy: Oh! That’s less useful yeah…but you’re mass producing these? Really? I have tons of plants, but I had to buy most of them first…take these 3 moss flavours I liked the look of. I bought a single bunch each of light, drip and blood moss. Then using a lot of Life mana, I slowly grew each of those patches, before transplanting it to all over my dungeon. I did the same for several vines and several reeds and corals and you are telling me you made a plant from scratch?

Amy: …Life mana didn’t seem to make any plants when I used it on a bunch of different materials… you said you combined it with crystal mana? Hmmm… I should see if I can make any Life+Water combination plants.

Innearth: Oh! Life+Water makes healing water I already tried that.

Amy: when combined with water? That is a pretty well-known combination. There’s bound to be some plant combinations if I use other physical materials though. What did you use to make your plant?

Innearth: Quartz…You’re saying there’s more combinations?

Amy: Oh plenty. Did you not buy the information on known beneficial materials? Or on mana types and their effects?

Innearth: Can I not get more experience by doing it myself?

Amy: …yes but there really is diminishing returns with material research. Unless you can consistently find combinations that are separate enough from each other to be unique, there’s really no point. Don’t re-invent the slime Innearth. The market is there for a reason.

Innearth: I guess, but doesn’t it feel more satisfying to figure it out yourself?

Amy: That…I can’t comment on. Whatever your hobbies are. I heard there’s a core that spends all his time building traps and hasn’t made any monsters other than tutorial slimes yet so to each their own.

Amy: Anyways I really want to see if I can make any plants that aren’t on the market. I want my dungeon to be a positive jungle with plants. If any of them give beneficial effects? That’s only a plus. The real goal is to make natural feeling biomes by having lots of different interacting mana types.

Amy: Feel free to continue messaging me but I won’t be paying as much attention.

Innearth: That’s fine, I’ve been planting while I was talking. Is there anything a biome needs other than plants?

Amy: Plants are a good starting point. You could also try attributing the air and water and walls.

Innearth: So, like make crystal walls? I can do that. Think it might be a bit harder to fill the air with crystal mana…I can make crystal/air materials, but they are solid.

Amy: Walls work.

Testing it out in his pool room Innearth broke apart the patch of living crystals hoping it would grow more. Then he worked on layering crystals on the walls ceiling and floor.

Doing the same thing he tried with the pillar room, he made sure to use plenty of different physical materials for the crystals. Some walls became reflective, bouncing back a distorted reflection, while others simply left a smooth surface. Various colours tinted the various crystals and gave the rooms a beautiful array of colours.

Deciding to sprinkle some fire crystals throughout the caves, he placed them artfully in nooks and crannies letting a warm glow fill his tunnels – some of the light passing through tinted crystals and changed to blues and greens and purples, giving the rooms a varying colour scheme.

Innearth’s sight was slightly weird. He could see light but wasn’t necessarily dependant upon it – seeing just as well in the dark. He vaguely knew most other creatures couldn’t see in the dark like Dungeon Cores could and knew that he should provide light for adventurers to make his dungeon more appealing (it's hard to fight carrying a torch) but didn’t really see how it was possible to not see just because there was a lack of light.

Continuing to decorate everywhere he had expanded to, the process became routine enough that he stopped spending as much focus on it and turned to his next goal. Creating a companion for the flying crystal.

Okay. So, there are two goals with this. One, I obviously want to make a damage sponge. A monster that can take hits while being dangerous enough that adventurers can’t just ignore it to focus on the easier to shatter “flying crystals”.

The second is something I just thought of. The crystal snakes don’t really fight anything naturally. They follow my commands for the most part but there’s no natural enemies for them in these caverns.

I want them to stop being as lazy and fight a bit for their lives :3

Also, if lots of crystal-core’d monsters die in these caves that’s going to increase the crystal mana in the area. One step closer to being a true crystal biome with lots of crystal mana infusing everything.

I don’t want to shatter cores for no reason but to increase the mana level slightly, but I don’t mind if they shatter when monsters fight it out. So make something with fire mana incorporated instead of water?

And then I have to beef it up until it’s a similar strength to my crystal snakes.

First things first, are there any good fire materials? I'd ask Abe but I think I've done more experiments than him.

Fire and Crystal mana made a weak fire crystal. And none of the materials I made back when I was experimenting with pure fire seem as useful. How about I try combining it with a few other options?

Messing around with Fire combinations for a few hours, making sure to combine with more than just Quartz he came up with a surprising (to him) combination. Earth and Fire mana made a liquid element with Quartz and a few others. Somehow the solid part of Earth was broken, and Magma mana was created – something Innearth had thought was impossible due to no water mana being present to make it a liquid.

I don’t understand mana again. I thought I was getting the hang of it, but I don’t actually.

Using magma instead of liquid crystal or metal he designed a new golem.

Iterating slightly on the previous versions he made a Pure core and surrounded it in a thick crystal mana shell to protect it. Surrounding that in a layer of magma he made an armour shell out of Earth mana and iron – instead of crystal mana – hoping it wouldn’t shatter as easily.

This made a round metallic ball however he didn’t stop there. Taking a page out of Bose’s books he drew cracks of fire and metal all over the outside of the ball showing a hint of what was contained within.

Next focusing on the weapon, he made two Fire mana iron pincers on the side of the ball. Arbitrarily picking that side as the front he expanded the pincers and then thickened them several times and tried to run some of the magma down their lengths.

A crude mouth formed. No digestive system hooked up to them and there was only a small cavity that fell to the floor instead of a proper throat, however, the pincers were still dangerous looking. Red light shone off them and a faint drip of magical magma periodically fell from the tips of the fangs, occasionally hitting the cave floor with a hissing sound.

Next, he tried his redemption with legs.

Adding an extra joint, (finally reaching a proper amount) he made 10 legs – 5 to a side – using the same kind of ring joint as the golems, Innearth gave each of them a strip of kinetic crystal.

Trying to add some traction he wished there was a reverse version of the vibrating kinetic material that stuck to things instead of version he got which reduced friction to next to zero.

However, thinking about that material gave him an idea. Adding a small ring of the vibrating directionless kinetic material to the bottom of his monster in the hopes it could slide across the ground – the legs pulling it around without being held back by its weight – he finished the monster spider.

For the most part, everything seemed to work. Giving life to his monster it started to pull itself around. Similar to how his flying crystals had been originally, it curved when trying to change directions legs skittered about. The legs did not seem to find a lot of traction on the ground however it also used the kinetic crystals in its legs to pull itself in different directions slightly giving it a small amount of control over its movements.

A weird consequence of adding the vibrating material to the monster’s bottom is the vibrating effect transferred up the rest of the body. The whole ball continuously vibrated slightly and had a slippery surface that only weakened by the time it reached the tips of its legs – which still didn’t seem to have much traction. Well aware that it wasn’t a match for his current crystal snakes he spawned an older iteration nearby.

Immediately going after each other the two monsters fought to the death on sight. Surprisingly the spider did better than he first thought. Even though it wasn’t as mobile as he had first hoped the snakes strikes glanced off its slippery body only dealing damage when hit perfectly head on.

The spider found it hard to bite into the snake’s side – and lost a leg partway through – but after a fierce struggle, it finally nicked a bite. As the pincers made contact with the snake, they immediately melted through the snake’s scales and caused thick gushes of steam to fly up. The liquid metal blood oozed out onto the ground and evaporated on contact with the burning pincers.

After that first bite, the snake was basically immobilized and it was trivial for the spider to glide to its spiked head and crush its core. After the spider’s fight, it seemed to still, a glance seeing its core was dim as it attempted to regenerate its mana.

Okay, So I need to fix its movement a bit – it can’t be dependant upon mana to move.

The few nicks were fixed due to its proximity to a beacon and its missing leg slowly, ever so slowly regrew while Innearth thought of a solution.

Abe: Hey man! Just dropping in to say I’m at level 10 already. Getting really bored of doing nothing but making materials but I’m definitely going catch up to you by the time I finish the double mana combos.

Abe: Ur high leveled days of tyranny are numbered m8.

Innearth: Hey! Good to hear you’re catching up. When you reach level 11 I’ll obviously be at level 12 though. Just saying.

Abe: heh we’ll see. I think you’ve run out of combination cheating anyways. How else can you get fast experience?

Innearth: Idk but I’ll figure it out. Tell me if you figure out any cool explosion combination materials. I can trade you.

Abe: ait. ait. will tell you then.

His focus was slightly shattered by Abe's message and it took Innearth a few minutes before he was able to re-focus. Returning to the train of thought he had been working on he started again.

Okay how about I make it so the spider's legs can dig into the ground? Or just stick to them.

He couldn’t extend magma down the legs, but he could try and add a tiny pocket of them to the end of each. Remaking the spider, he added small balls of magma mana along with a single spike facing downwards for each of the legs and thickened them in the hopes this would fix their movement.

Giving life to this copy he was happy to see its legs sink into the ground finding purchase and movement without needing to constantly use its personal mana just to move.

Skittering past its older version without a care, the new spider skated through his dungeon pushing off of walls and the floor while sliding on its belly. Turning a corner the spider came across a snake and snapped its pincers at the iteration by surprise.

Finally, they can start a constant battle again! This was my goal its nice to see things work out.

I’ll have to make safe zones for each so they can recuperate and hide but that’s a later me issue.

As the spider skittered through his halls, it continued upwards further and further until it reached the edge of Innearth’s influence. Staring at the wall hungrily it – he for the spider seemed like a male to Innearth – seemed to want to continue past and waited impatiently for Innearth to start expanding again.

That’s weird? I wonder what he wants in this direction?

As Innearth started focusing all his strength on expanding that wall, the second spider made its way up as well.

Okay, now I know there’s something this way. What do you two want? What is it boys?