***Anther’s POV***

Anther hurried his feet once he had entered into the safety of his village. Grass and leaves still carpeted the ground here, and the canopy above was just as thick, but regardless, this place was obviously different from the surrounding wilds.

The trees here were thriving, in a certain sense, because the elves guided their growths to create houses. They weren’t much taller than other trees, but they were a great deal thicker. Their insides were hollow to accommodate the creatures who lived inside them. Growing a healthy home was a taxing and time-consuming task, but elves weren’t considered adults until they had accomplished it.

The hollowed tree houses hung curtains at the entrances instead of doors. Only important places were blocked off with carved wood or stone. Plenty of pots sat around near the dwellings, holding things like grains, water, herbs, and various other resources. They were all quite well crafted, and most of them were brightly painted. Decorative textiles were hung up on strings tied between branches and windows, and there were stalls set up along the streets, made by tying together loose branches into elegant wicker furniture. The numbers of these things had increased the closer the Yadh festival came, but they were always present to some extent.

Anther trotted past all these things, calling out to anyone who greeted him on his way by. He found the home his mother had grown, and he threw aside the curtain to enter. Nature had invaded quite splendidly into the area inside. Soft grass grew from the soil on the floor, vines hugged the insides of the walls, and some moths and other insects wandered about lazily. There was various wicker furniture about, plenty of which had potted plants set on top, as well as ordinary things like dishware. Anther found his mother humming by the kitchen counter while she ground up some flour to bake with.

“Mother, I’m home,” he called out, causing the woman to stop working and look over her shoulder.

“Welcome back, Anther,” she smiled warmly. Just like her son, Anniil wore her soft brown hair loosely tied back. She wore a simple linen dress, dyed with earthy yellows, greens, and browns, and had an apron on to keep it clean. For the same reason, her sleeves were rolled up to her elbows, showing warmly tanned olive skin. Her face was pretty, with wide green eyes.

“Did you get fillings for the pies?”

“Yes,” Anther shrugged off the sack he was carrying and set it on the table, digging inside for the things he had brought. “I found a pheasant, and… a silver horned rabbit, and some moon blossoms. That should be… everything.” He picked the items out of the pack and walked them over to her.

“You’re stalling again,” Anniil chided him. She took the ingredients and planted a kiss on Anther’s forehead. “Thanks for working so hard,” she smiled.

He nodded. “Yes, but mother… listen--” before Anther could bring up the dungeon he’d stumbled upon, a familiar face appeared in the window above the kitchen counter.

“Oh! Anniil, is it time to make the pies?” it was a friendly older man who called out, with (culturally speaking) short, swept-back hair.

“Hello, Ilsam. Yes, Anther just brought over the last things I needed,” Anniil replied warmly.

“Mother… I found--”

“So you already have everything? My garden is open if you need anything else.”

“You’re too kind. If that happens, I’ll let you know right away.”

The both of them chuckled together, and Anther tried to open his mouth again. This time, Mr. Ilsam spoke up first.

“Oh, right. Were the beets I brought good enough? I have plenty of big ones if you need more.”

Anniil reached for a jar filled with some kind of pink jelly, “Yes, they worked just fine. I’ll be able to make a lot with how much you sent me. Spiced beet pie is Anther’s favorite.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Ilsam laughed.

Anniil smiled down at her son. “Anther, thank Mr. Ilsam for the beets he sent us.”

They both looked at him with smiling faces, and Anther resisted puffing his cheeks in irritation. “Thank you for… the beets, Mr. Ilsam,” he lowered his head and said, sighing internally.

“No problem, no problem!” the man grinned. “Well, I’d best be going. There’s a lot of work left to do still,” he waved, and Anniil waved back. Then, once Ilsam had walked out of view, she turned to Anther and smiled.

“Would you help grind the flour while I get to work on the fillings?”

Realizing that the festival was the only thing people had on their minds right now, Anther gave up on sharing his dungeon experience until later. He tugged up his sleeves and reached for an apron, “Yes, mother.”

***Archimedes’ POV***

Archimedes allowed himself twelve hours to store up 318 mana. His accumulation had risen to 27 in the meantime. All the while he had been trying to think of the most challenging puzzles he could. Perhaps his puzzles would cease to function as barriers once the answers were made known, but they still had to be solved once first. The more difficult he made that, the longer they would be able to protect him. For that reason, he didn’t want to make too many puzzles that could be solved through simple trial and error the way his first one could.

In the end, he thought he had come up with something good. It was as much a wordless riddle as it was a puzzle; the chances of solving it accidentally were quite low.

First, Archimedes placed another set of double doors at the entrance to the only room he had. He carved an elliptical hole into the middle of it, then drilled at a downward angle until it opened at the other side. The hole was angled such that one could not see through it into the next room, but one could drop something into the next room through it.

He carved images of Wolfbats in a line above the hole in the door. There were five of them, all in battle-ready positions. On either side of the hole in the door, he carved two Wolfbats sitting in an expectant posture with tails wagging. Below the hole in the door, there were five Wolfbats again, now in relaxed and playful poses.

Was it too obvious? Archimedes planned to train his Wolfbats not to open the door unless somebody dropped a cave rabbit in for them. He had hoped to make things more challenging by using pictures instead of words and by scattering the necessary pieces.

“It’s too easy, isn’t it? Hey, what do you think?” Archimedes tried to call out to the voice of the world. It had been a few days since it had spoken to him casually. Now as well, there was no answer. Archimedes sighed and looked at his second puzzle with a bit of dissatisfaction. Finally, he came to a conclusion that he could live with, he hoped.

I already made it, so it would be a waste to tear it down.

Archimedes decided to make the mechanism to remove the door bars simple so that his Wolfbats could easily use it. He carved grooves in the wall beside either door and made custom stone door bars to fit into them. They were similar to giant, elongated versions of the sliding tiles he had used in his first puzzle. Archimedes affixed a stone rod to the far end of either door bar so that they could easily be pushed or dragged by a set of jaws. It really was as simple as sliding the door bars out of the way when the correct offering was given. Archimedes simply imprinted the correct behavioral patterns into the minds of his monsters, and the puzzle was complete.

Congratulations! Dungeon core Archimedes has registered a new Puzzle! New Puzzle registered: Double-Door Offering Puzzle (cave rabbit)

“Yes, yes, and I’m sure you added the new variation of door bar to the list as well. I’m never going to reuse a puzzle, and there’s already a bunch of things recorded that I don’t care about. Bury it, will you?”

All of Archimedes’ listed creation models were kept very near the front of his consciousness. Anytime his mind drifted a bit, he would see them there. Frankly, it was annoying, and he didn’t have much processing power to spare on the information for things he wasn’t using. It would be better to hide the irrelevant ones. Even his massive previous self would have had trouble viewing every model he had collected at once.

The voice of the world easily obliged his request. Immediately, the list began to shift and change, showing only what he had decided was necessary. Archimedes could still expand the list again if he needed to search for something specific, though he planned to do most things from memory.

“You should have just done that to start with,” he grumbled. As far as Archimedes was concerned, this cursed life was just a continuation of his last one, but everything else disagreed with that sentiment and had reset accordingly.

Everything except for him. Why didn’t he reset? It would be fine even if his consciousness was buried until he’d carved out a few more levels, right?

If I can make a third level, I should be able to build an ether-sealing formation, right?

If he could craft one of those around his core, he could forcefully cut of his ether supply. It would only take a month or so for him to run dry after that. Then he wouldn’t have to be constantly awake like this; he could return to that comfortable death-like state from before…

It was no good. There would be nothing to stop humans--or long ears--from stealing him away. Rest sounded wonderful, but it would only lead to him waking up to an indefinite period of servitude.

I’ll have to self-destruct after all, huh?

Archimedes reached the same conclusion as he had every other time he thought about ways to die: it was impossible. In that case, he could only work to promote his goals and freedom. There was 262 mana remaining after making his second puzzle. It wasn't enough to expand his dungeon by much, and he was short on space for more puzzles. He decided to dig small tunnels and burrows along the first hallway where his cave rabbits could escape. He figured that would be enough to prevent their population being wiped out by adventurers.

Archimedes wanted to start installing traps, but he was having trouble thinking up mechanical triggers that he could tie to puzzle completion. It would be better to wait until he could craft more complex patterns with mana. But even though he’d already decided for traps to be his main offensive tools, Archimedes had to admit that he simply wouldn’t feel safe without a strong monster around. He really had to make one.

The Wolfbats were able to open the second door from their side of it, so they could go out to hunt whenever they wanted, as long as no one was in the dungeon. Right, he could let them keep hunting and steadily growing stronger, but it was hard to be that patient.

Without thinking too much about it, Archimedes funneled 200 mana into the oldest Wolfbat to strengthen him. The creature’s fur puffed up and stood on end at the unexpected situation. He writhed around on the floor, feeling like there was fire in his veins instead of blood. Normally, a weak monster like a Wolfbat wouldn’t be able to tolerate a sudden surge in mana at this level; perhaps around twenty mana would remain after the rest escaped the beast’s grasp. That wouldn’t be the case as long as Archimedes was responsible for it. He would guide the mana carefully, never letting it leave the beast’s body no matter how it hurt. He would hold it inside until the monster adjusted, then he would control the flow of the mana to gradually assimilate it with the monster’s original supply. It was like a water mage unleashing a flood upon a small village, then guiding the water into the small stream that kept the town alive. There was a question about the method, but the result was desirable.

Ten minutes, the poor Wolfbat had to suffer. Finally, he was able to shakily stand up, his pink tongue hanging out as he panted. The monster’s grey fur was shinier now than before, and he had a more powerful presence than the other Wolfbats. Even so, Archimedes felt slightly disgruntled.

Not quite enough to evolve.

He ordered the oldest Wolfbat to go hunt cave rabbits and nodded when he was able to open the door as intended. The remaining three Wolfbats were sitting unnaturally still after watching their elder suddenly suffer. Their vague senses only told them that the core wasn’t troubled by it, which was slightly worrying on its own. In the end, they just decided to play wrestle with each other and forget about it. Whatever had happened, their brother had gotten stronger because of it.

Archimedes focused on producing more mana while keeping an eye on his first Wolfbat. Tens of minutes passed with him dutifully hunting, and finally, he was ready to evolve. He sent out an order for the monster to stop hunting and stay still. The cave rabbits happily took their chance to escape, though the burrows were full already, so they could only huddle up against the walls.

Meanwhile, Archimedes felt around in the monster’s body, looking for that little seed of potential…

Wolfbat is ready to evolve! Evolution options: Dungeon Wolf (E), Dungeon Bat (E)

For a moment, Archimedes thought it might be fine to pick the Dungeon Wolf and get a little extra fighting power. It was hard to fight against the methods that had gotten him through so many years in his past life, but he just had to remind himself where that past life had ended up and he could snap out of it. He firmly stuck to his original plan and chose the Dungeon Bat evolution.

Waves of hot and cold energy suddenly assaulted the Wolfbat who was sitting patiently. His blood boiled and his bones cracked apart; his flesh split and fused together, over and over, waging microscopic wars across his body. The little monster stuck his tongue out and wailed hoarsely from the pain. His brother and sisters stopped wrestling to look over, but they couldn’t really see what was happening past the glittering mana coating his body. Still, they could tell that their brother was suffering and shared looks of concern. The cave rabbits tried to press their bodies even closer to the cave wall, building up a small rabbit pile out of the attempt.

Finally, the light cleared away and the monster’s pain vanished like a bad dream. In its place, energy and power filled him. His body structure had changed quite a lot but controlling it felt perfectly natural. His new body kept its fluffy grey fur, except on his limbs and ears. The size of his body hadn’t changed much, but his wingspan had increased. The long snout on his face had gotten much shorter, but his teeth had gotten sharper in exchange. The ends of his limbs now sported fingers and toes with sharp claws. Overall, he felt that his body had become much lighter, and experimented with it by jumping around a bit. The monster quickly discovered that his sharp claws could be used to climb the cave walls and ceiling, and enjoyed the upgrade from wings that could glide to wings that could fly.

Wolfbat (F) has evolved into Dungeon Bat (E) Dungeon Core Archimedes’ rank has risen!

Archimedes watched his monster experiment with his new body. He was glad he was able to adjust to things without any trouble, especially considering that his back legs were essentially on backward. Well, but what could a dungeon core like Archimedes know about having a body with limbs? A lot actually, since he could experience everything his creations did. And, being capable of making a direct comparison between the two, he was aggravated that it was objectively easier for a monster to adjust to an entirely different physique than it was for him to move his core a meter in any direction!

“I can live with never seeing the sky for how many thousands of years that I live for, but couldn’t you at least have made me a being with a proper body?! A dungeon monster would be fine, right? I could experience various things that way. If a living creature is still too much, you could have made me an artificial construct like a golem. Anything with limbs would have been fine!”

The voice of the world was probably ignoring him by now, given the number of times he’d complained about the same thing. Either way, it was useless. It was a better use of his processing power to consider the good things that had happened. For example, his rank had risen from F to E, due to having an E rank monster. The reward for that rank up was an increase in his processing abilities. The kinds of patterns he could make to govern his dungeon would increase with this.

The sun would be rising in another hour or so. No doubt, the long ear boy would return very soon with others. Archimedes put his efforts into expanding and fortifying as much as he could while he still had time.

______

Costs (Compressed):

Spoiler: Spoiler

Monsters (per 1)

Dungeon Bat: 130 / 7 min | Wolfbat: 30 / 5 min

Animals (per 1)

Cave Rabbit: 14 / 2 min

Plants (per 1 or per 1 square meter as appropriate)

Bee Balm: 9 / 36 | Black Pepper: 10 / 45 | Glow Moss: 6 / 25 sec | Ice Fern: 13 / 48 | Weeds: 7 / 13 sec

Fungi (per 1 or per 1 square meter as appropriate)

Mycelium: 4 / 15 sec | White Fungus: 6 / 18 sec

Materials (per 10cm x 1meter x 1meter / realtime)

Dirt: 5 | Stone: 10 | Water: 15

Constructs (per 1 / real-time)

Stone Door: 22 | Stone Door Bar: 4 | Stone Plaque: 4

Costs (Expanded):

Spoiler: Spoiler

Monsters (per 1)

Dungeon Bat: 130 / 7 min | Wolfbat: 30 / 5 min

Animals (per 1)

Cave Rabbit: 14 / 2 min | Earthworm: 3 / 15 sec | Dung Beetle: 8 / 25 sec | Moth 6 / 13 sec | Pill Bug: 4 / 25 sec | Termite: 4 / 22 sec

Plants (per 1 or per 1 square meter as appropriate)

Bee Balm: 9 / 36 | Black Pepper: 10 / 45 | Glow Moss: 6 / 25 sec | Grass: 5 / 30 sec | Fern: 5 / 25 sec | Ice Fern: 13 / 48 | Weeds: 7 / 13 sec

Fungi (per 1 or per 1 square meter as appropriate)

Mycelium: 4 / 15 sec | White Fungus: 6 / 18 sec

Materials (per 10cm x 1meter x 1meter / realtime)

Asbestos: 16 | Beryl: 17 | Dirt: 5 | Granite: 11 | Stone: 10 | Water: 15

Constructs (per 1 / real-time)

Large Copper Spring: 8 | Sliding Stone Door Bar: 4 | Sliding Puzzle Tile: 3 | Small Rock: 2 | Stone Door: 22 | Stone Door Bar: 4 | Stone Plaque: 4 | Tiny Copper Spring: 1

Puzzles (per 1 / instant)

Double-Door Sliding Puzzle (12 tiles, stone): 95 | Double-Door Offering Puzzle (cave rabbit): 56