***Archimedes’ POV***

At the same time Archimedes sent Minute upstairs, he called Zemnes down to guard his core more directly. Aside from the Red Bat, his second floor was sadly empty at the moment. While it was nice to feel light and unburdened, he inevitably felt exposed and helpless too, like he was naked from the waist down. At the moment, Archimedes was holding out hope for Minute’s performance. If the Clockwork Golem was able to do a good job, he would suddenly find himself with a good deal more mana to build with.

“I am on the first floor. What should I do now?” Minute creaked and whirred in mild confusion.

“See what you can do with this door,” Archimedes sent an image and a location into the monster’s mind, displaying the fourth puzzle: the one with the many tiles with various shapes carved into them. “I’d like for it to function on only mechanical principles.”

Archimedes patiently explained how he wanted the puzzle to work. The door was to stay locked until the correct buttons were pushed in the right order. If any were missed or in the wrong order, or if a button was pressed that wasn’t part of the solution, the door would stay locked until the puzzle reset. He also specified that he wanted to minimize sounds that would suggest the correct answer.

“It will reset on its own as a part of the natural law here, so you don’t need to concern yourself with that.”

”I understand. Good. I will build it.”

Archimedes gave Minute the authority to make permanent changes to the fourth puzzle. He still needed to help the Golem with some things, like accessing the inside of a solid stone door or providing parts and tools, but all of the assembly and imagination was Minute’s work. After half an hour, Minute indicated that it was done, and Archimedes fused the front panel of the door back into place. Minute demonstrated all the ways the puzzle could fail and the one way it could succeed, and everything was working perfectly.

“I wouldn’t have thought of doing it that way, but it does keep things quiet,” Archimedes mused.

Within the doors, a little above the base, was a long and straight piece of metal with angled saw teeth along the bottom edge. There were metal pins stuck in each of the grooves between those teeth, fixing the metal in place. When all the pins were removed, a spring would pull the metal piece fully into the wall, unlocking the doors.

The pins were set at an angle and supported from the bottom. In order to remove them, they had to be pulled up by a string tied to the back end. Each string was connected to a spring-loaded coil, which would be free to wind up when the correct button pushed a smaller pin out of the way. All of the uninvolved buttons would press down a sharp blade running across their rows, cutting the strings and leaving the bottom pins stuck in place.

To preserve the sequence aspect of the puzzle, all but the first correct button were also connected to a blade. If one was pressed too early, instead of freeing the bottom pin, the string would be cut, locking the corresponding bottom pin in place. However, as long as the preceding button was pressed, the coil winding up its pin string would also pull another string connected to the next button’s blade and coil, sliding them along a short metal track and putting the next button over the coil pin instead of the blade.

The assembly and parts were all very cheap, and the implementation was simple enough that even Archimedes could understand it, even if he couldn’t come up with it himself.

“Very good work,” he complimented. “Why don’t you take a look around and let me know if there’s anything else you can improve up here.”

Archimedes promptly used Destroy Creation on the magic pattern that was still cast on the fourth puzzle, now to no effect whatsoever. The four thousand mana he’d originally spent on it rushed back into him. His head felt clearer now that he wasn’t running on fumes.

Down on the second floor, Archimedes moved his core to the first room, as nauseating as it was, as the bottom of a stairwell wasn’t the best place for the most important thing in a dungeon. This spot was better, but he was still basically exposed. There would be no puzzles protecting him until he thought of a theme for his second floor. He was already a little tired of puzzle doors.

He dipped into his old habits for a moment, making a Huge Slime that could at least buy him some time against intruders. Slimes were incredibly easy to make. They were essentially just a gelatinous sphere with a hard, marble-sized nucleus floating inside. The one Archimedes made was purple, just like his core. The colors of slimes weren’t actually important. Archimedes had played around with adventurers in the past by coloring fire slimes blue. People who relied on their eyes fell for it easily.

While he was falling to temptation, thoughts of the Nymph he’d made in his last life drifted through his head.

Hmm. I hate to say it, but as amazing as that thing turned out last time, it wasn’t very smart. He wondered if there was a peaceful plant-type monster that he could put in his Fertile Cave Biome that would change more to suit his current goals. Maybe something that could actively tend to his plants. It was strange when someone like First refused to take any treasures for their efforts, but someone like Gatherer, who took everything would put a bit of stress on his plants.

“Do you know a monster like that, Vow?” he asked it half just to say something. He’d never actually gotten advice from Vow before; only chatter.

I can't… be biased… by giving advice. But I like the idea, and I wish you luck.

Archimedes stared at that dull window for a moment, letting the words sink in. That had been far more than an answer to his offhanded question. Archimedes was no stranger to having mysterious laws dictate his actions, and it seemed like Vow was the same. That was quite a strict limitation, but he supposed it made sense.

If the windows I see and those others see come from the same place, the source must possess all the knowledge of several worlds, or at least two of them. Infinite knowledge but a complete lack of authority. Even being a dungeon might be better than that, even if my power is just a temporary illusion.

“But seriously, next time you have to tell me why you put me here like this. Add it as a footnote at the bottom or something, I don’t care, just do it.”

Archimedes wanted to recreate the Fertile Cave Biome on his second floor. He was only a month old, but his mana already accumulated at a rate of 178 per hour. If he could double that, it would help him immensely. To make the Fertile Cave Biome, he needed Fresh Air, Live-Giving Water, Fertile Soil, as well as diverse Plants, Fungi, bugs, and small mammals. Right now, when the area he had to work on was small, was the best time to do this. Four thousand mana was enough to knock it out right away.

After turning his second floor into a Fertile Cave, Archimedes created a Mandrake, planting the deformed humanoid root in its first hallway. If it turned into a monstrosity like the Nymph, he would just destroy it and try again with a different plant monster.

I guess I’ll start gathering “mana potions” and work on tidying up the second floor.

But before he could, three creatures entered his range of perception. They weren't any of the three that Archimedes was familiar with, so he dropped everything to investigate.

One was a male long ear. This one was an adult, but besides that, it was basically the same as the other three. It was the two other creatures that gripped his focus. One was a large man with a strong physique. He was similar to a human in many ways, but he also had qualities similar to a wolf. There were furry ears growing from the top of his head; a fluffy tail from his lower back; a mane following his spine. His eyes were brown, and he had tan skin like the long ears. Strangely, there was barely an ounce of mana in the man’s body and, judging by the way it moved, the creature didn’t have any control over it.

Not knowing what this creature was, Archimedes decided to call him a wolf-man.

The second creature was a woman with a modest frame. Compared to the long ears who leaned toward the feminine side and the wolf-man who was filled to the brim with masculine chemicals, she was much more balanced. Her size and rounded ears also reminded him more of humans than the other creatures he’d seen. However, she was clearly not a human. Her skin was nearly white, and her hair was even lighter. She had bright purple eyes with vertical pupils and black horns growing from her head. Even with that, he could have considered her a deformed or mutated human, but there was something very obvious that made that impossible.

What is that absurd mana?!

Brimming from the depths of the woman to just beneath her skin, black mana was raging in a silent storm. It was volatile and explosive, and the amount was absurd. How had so much of something so dangerous been stuffed into such a small body? A human mage would have died outright if they tried to contain it, but the horned woman didn’t look to be experiencing any discomfort.

For the first time since being born in this world, Archimedes felt not worry, but fear. None of the many preparations he’d made could stand up to mana like that—if she knew how to use it.

Unfortunately, she did know how to use it, and she did something terrible with it. She unleashed that horrible mana inside of him without any warning. His creatures fled from it, shivering in terror and often fainting when it inevitably washed over and through them. It ignored all of his defenses. Worse, it lapped at them hungrily. It dragged across his walls and flooded the air. Archimedes’ core pulsed wildly. It would only be a few seconds before it reached here, and he was only barely holding himself together after having his dungeon ravaged.

This phenomenon wasn’t even on the same level as the time he was licked by First’s mana. He was being violated, and there was nothing he could do to resist. Even if he sent some mana to defend himself, the black mana abused it the same way it did everything else.

“Please stop!” he begged, unwilling to bear any more pain.

The wicked mana didn’t care. It arrived at his core and drilled into him. Archimedes stopped thinking, falling into a place of fear and pain.

The whole thing ended quickly, the black mana returning to the horned woman, but it felt like hours had passed in that state. Old memories dawned in Archimedes’ mind: groups of male humans using the privacy of his dungeon to force themselves onto unfortunate women. Their tormented emotions seeping into his walls.

Raped. I… That, to me? I was…?

He could still feel tingling all over his body where he had been aggressively violated. It was distracting, and it kept sending him back to that place of pain and fear. His core shook violently. The walls creaked as they subtly expanded and contracted. He had no physical ability to cry, but he was wailing inside. All of the creatures in his dungeon could hear it in the backs of their minds. None of them were in good condition either: many were too weak to stand and those who could were shaking. They had all discovered a new fear today, but they could still feel their creator’s anguish inside of them. They knew he had received the worst of it by far.

Archimedes wasn’t able to focus on anything until the horned woman used her black mana again to smash his first puzzle to pieces. He reeled back in blind terror, seeing that monstrosity trying to come inside him. He was stuck between wanting to flee (which was impossible) and wanting to tear her to shreds, and he wasn’t able to order his monsters to do anything in the end.

Ultimately, the horned woman didn’t go any further inside of him. She apologized, though Archimedes didn’t feel anywhere near as much sincerity as he felt was warranted. She also seemed to only be apologizing for destroying his door. Did she feel nothing after violating him like that?

She offered him a… gift. A portion of the mana that had so traumatized him. She implied that he would be able to use it for himself, but was that really possible? Archimedes had never had mana offered to him in his last life, and this mana was unique. Rather than absorb it, he pulled all of his own mana away from it, afraid to even touch it after what he’d just experienced.

The horned woman looked up at the ceiling to talk to him. Why did they all do that?

“I’m sure you’ve only seen elves until now,” she said. “I’m a demon. My name is Cherise Manabella Irenthi, and I’ll most likely be the senior inspector in charge of overseeing your growth, as soon as a new guild branch is built in the nearby village. Once again, I apologize for my earlier outburst. I hope our relationship can be amicable in the future.”

… He felt like spitting.

Archimedes’ gaze followed the horned woman’s back until she passed into the whiteness beyond his range of perception. Anger started to bubble up inside of him.

“You… You! Kill! I will see you dead! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you to death! Die! I… I…” The rage was short lived. Grief seeped into him like cold water, and he cried again, his beasts all lowering their heads and falling quiet.

A window appeared in front of him, which he forced himself to focus on while sniffling.

I’m here. It’s okay. I’m here.

Archimedes sniffled and cried it out with Vow watching over him. After spending quite a while like that, he finally returned to a more normal state, bitterly investigating his broken door. It had started repairing itself, but it was nowhere near complete. He eyed the horrifying ball of terror, floating inertly in the middle of his hall. It could help him repair his door, or it could be a trap meant to humiliate him one last time.

He couldn’t leave the door unfixed. Regardless, Archimedes ignored the orb of evil, instead, harvesting some mana potions to resupply himself. The door was quickly repaired, but he still had quite a bit left over. His focus should be on developing his second floor, but it wasn’t. He was not in a constructive mindset at the moment.

Archimedes looked at the walls lining his first hallway. Aside from some vines and moss, they were essentially bare. They would do. Archimedes carved the horned woman’s likeness into the stone. Her posture was slack as she hung from a rope by her neck. He carved another of her lying on the ground, many sharp blades sticking out of her back. A third image, where she was tied to a pole, burning to ash. ‘Die, Rapist,’ he carved above the macabre mural.

Still unsatisfied, Archimedes made a life-sized statue of her, slumped up against the opposite wall; her head lying in the foliage about a foot away. ‘Die, Rapist,’ was carved into her chest.

He went on, crafting darker and darker obscenities with the horned woman as the victim. He finally stopped right before the boss room; he was out of mana.

“If she dares to come here,” he gave his order to every creature in the dungeon, “whether she solves the puzzles or not, kill her.”

Archimedes looked again at his abuser’s gift. Steeling himself, he reached out with his mana and absorbed it. It was surprisingly docile, flowing toward him without any resistance. Just to be safe, he turned it into ether and back to remove its tainted nature. The small orb surprisingly contained almost a thousand mana.

Of his current monsters, the one with the best matchup against a mage was… His sights settled on the Huge Slime he’d just made on a whim, and then he funneled that thousand mana into it. White light surrounded the monster as it expanded to an even larger size. When the light faded, the glistening violet body of the new King Slime became visible. Somehow, a tiny golden crown had appeared on top of its body.

Dungeon Core Archimedes’ rank has risen!

“Do anything you can to stop her,” Archimedes pondered on a name for the creature, “Thesia.”

“Okay, papa,” it answered with child-like thought patterns. Slimes… developed slowly. No matter. Now he had to decide on a theme for his second floor and start construction right away. He refused to fall victim to one of those “demons” a second time.