Long ago, on planet Rachon there was a dungeon named Calipso who was lonely and tired of fighting. She sold herself to one of the gods of Rachon in order to prevent the humans from breaking or enslaving her core. Once she was safe, she finally started to live.

She rearranged her internal structure into something beneficial for humans. She provided good environments, resources, housing, entertainment, and relaxation. The groups that came inside to harvest her resources ended up liking life in the dungeon, and some of them chose not to leave. More joined them, and they brought in the culture and liveliness of the outside world. Calipso became friends with these humans and their descendants, and she was happy to provide for them. Her god was also satisfied that their followers were prospering.

However, news of the Hostess Dungeon spread throughout Rachon, and people from many lands went to see it. Some chose to stay as the original residents had, but these humans from different lands were privy to different gods, and these gods were angry that their followers were hidden in a domain that they could not reach. The disgruntled gods started a holy war in the world outside against Calipso’s patron god. Eventually, the death toll grew so high that Calipso was abandoned by her god, who wanted to preserve however many followers they still had.

Without divine protection nor defenses of her own, Calipso was ravaged, her core taken by a zealot priest and used as a staff focus. Archimedes learned her story when that same priest came to challenge his dungeon. He released Calipso from her loneliness at her own request and reaffirmed for himself that he would never submit to a god.

***Archimedes’ POV***

“In summary,” Archimedes told his inhabitants, “gods will retaliate against me if I take too many of their people into my domain.”

“Well, what about me?” Lilith asked. “Do I not count because I’m a copy?”

Her question made Archimedes hesitate. According to his readings, demons had a god. His name was Bath, the Endless Storm.

The dungeon mentally held his chin in thought. Like she said, she’s only a copy. It isn’t like I’ve stolen her. However, it’s possible that this Bath won’t take kindly to me copying his work.

“Now that you mention it, it’s better to be safe,” he mused. “I suppose I can’t let you stay a demon after all.”

“Wait, what?”

“Weakening that heart of yours should be the final straw to turn you into a human.”

“Weakening my what?!”

In the comfort of her house, Lilith clutched her chest and collapsed in pain. Archimedes, meanwhile, dug around in her heart and very meticulously compromised its structure. He didn’t have to spoil it too much before her designation in his eyes changed from “demon” to “proto human”. He was curious that she wasn’t simply a human, but perhaps this was what happened when you forced someone from one race to another, as opposed to creating them as the latter race originally. A very quick and painful test on some insects confirmed his hypothesis.

“I’ll know in a few hours whether natural birth removes the ‘proto’ preface.”

Lilith slowly got back to her feet and then knelt back down again to retch. “You’re a sadist,” she moaned. “I’m sure of it now.”

“I don’t take pleasure in your pain, but I’m also not bothered by it. Having accurate feedback improves my chances of succeeding with a new alteration. Anyway, you’re a human now, congratulations.”

“Is it even worth congratulating?” she groaned, just barely able to stand properly again. The next moment, her eyes went wide, and she lifted up a hand in front of her face. A small glowing orb appeared above her palm, which she stared at in pleasant surprise. “My mana is back? I mean, it feels weaker, but I can use magic again!”

Lilith quashed her joyful relief and wiped the smile from her face, canceling the spell and closing her fist. “I won’t thank you. I was supposed to be able to do this in the first place.”

Archimedes didn’t respond to her. He’d already gone back to reading while he waited for the neo beetles to mate. He had two more days until the dungeon would open again, so this could be his last chance to immerse himself in research.

While he was reading, a familiar, faded window appeared in the corner of his vision.

Phew, I'm alive.

Archimedes breathed a sigh of relief now that Vow was speaking again. It had been several days since he’d last heard from her.

“Telling me about creature cores hurt you, didn’t it? Don’t do that again.”

Do you care about me?

“Who else would I care for?” Vow was the only being Archimedes interacted with who was neither an invader nor of his making. For a moment, Anther’s face flashed in Archimedes’ thoughts. He had to admit that the little guest was growing on him, but his relationship with Vow was… unique. It was hard to put to words.

Maybe the voice of the world had run out of stamina for the day, because her reply didn’t come until the next morning:

I promise to guide you to happiness. Please be patient.

Archimedes looked away from the final anthology out of the considerable pile of books he’d been gifted as it dissolved into particles of light, entering his memory. He didn’t bother kicking the dead horse by asking what in the world she meant by that. She wasn’t going to tell him, that was clear. Archimedes just sighed and mentally nodded.

“Any cryptic advice to get me there a little sooner?”

Beetles.

Aha~ Now that was an interesting hint.

***

Archimedes was breeding beetles. Proto beetles, specifically. And proto ants, proto pill bugs, proto centipedes… Basically, he was tinkering with genetics, expecting to get a new skill out of it. After a few accelerated generations, when turning one kind of bug into another kind of bug didn’t do it, Archimedes tried making different offshoots of the same type of bug. For example, he tried turning Flower Chafers into Soft-Winged Flower Beetles, and then he moved onto making species that never existed in the first place. By the virtue of being able to alter the flow of time and having plenty of mana to waste on this side project (courtesy of the second floor), he pushed forward until he was rewarded.

C Rank Dungeon Archimedes has unlocked the ability .

Not sure what I needed this for, since I could do it myself, but now I have it.

Vow was likely spent, so Archimedes would chat with her about it again tomorrow. In the meantime, he had a couple of visitors upstairs.

*** Cherise Manabella Irenthi’s POV***

The guild leader took a deep breath. She got unduly nervous dealing with this dungeon, thanks to how many irregularities it had and how much stress it had already caused her. It was a bad first assignment for sure, but she still had to do her job. She glanced at Rybo, who was standing passively behind her, and he shrugged, nodding toward the platinum front door of the place.

“Good morning,” she called into the air. “You’re opening tomorrow, right? I’m sure you’re busy, but you must have noticed in the documents I gave you that the guild is supposed to deploy a protective barrier around your core before the explorers might get to it. Could you send a monster to lead me to it?”

The front door swung open, and Cherise saw a wooden monster waving mechanically at her at the end of the first hallway. She followed it down to the second floor, where she allowed herself to bask for a moment in the relaxing feeling that the environment there brought her.

“Oh wow. What’s with this floor? I feel great.” Rybo flexed his arms, finding himself full of energy all of a sudden. He would’ve tried a few exercises if he weren’t in the middle of a dungeon on business.

“I know, but come on, that doll is waiting for us.”

The puppet creature led the guild workers to a valley in the middle of the floor. At the bottom of the valley was a large pink flower bud, and floating beside it was a two-layered, multifaceted purple gemstone.

“We meet at last,” Cherise bowed and spoke politely, the way she was trained to do with much higher-level dungeons.

Rybo kept his mouth shut to follow her lead, but internally he was thinking, Was this thing going to just leave its core sitting out in the open like this?

The doll monster wandered off, and a sign appeared at the feet of the guild workers.

“I’m skeptical about this barrier,” it said. “Could you tell me more about it in detail?”

Cherise nodded, “Of course. The barrier is centered on you and prevents the passage of everything except pure mana and ether. However, if you use too much energy at once--for example, when creating a new floor--you’ll break the barrier from the inside. At that point, you can just call for us and we’ll make you a new one.

“You’ll still be able to move after the barrier is created, but the barrier is also large enough that you can easily make it impossible for any would-be thieves to bring you out of here by force, just by making the pathways narrower. However, it is of fixed size after it’s made, so keep that in mind while you’re building.”

The words on the sign changed as the dungeon put forth another question.

“Can I ask you to remove it later if I don’t like it?”

“Yes,” she said uncertainly, “but you’ll need to sign some forms stating that you accept the burden of any consequences that may result from refusing a barrier.”

“Go ahead,” the sign said.

***Archimedes’ POV***

He didn’t trust this woman or her filthy magic with one of his malformed beetles, let alone with his core. The entire time Cherise was weaving her spell, Archimedes was analyzing it with every ounce of his focus. He only allowed her to continue for as long as he didn’t notice anything detrimental to him in the architecture of its design. Thankfully, it seemed that the barrier didn’t contain anything sinister.

There was one blatant hiccup, though, and that was that the demon failed to actually materialize the spell model she had so carefully crafted in her head. For a moment, she just stood there in shocked disbelief, like she was still expecting the barrier to appear at any moment.

“Can we not cast spells on this floor?” she gasped.

“I thought that was obvious,” Archimedes wrote on his sign.

The demoness hung her head and facepalmed, but Archimedes was perfectly happy to see a safe and free trial of the barrier they were planning to place him in.

“I guess I’ll come back with that paperwork,” she groaned. Archimedes noted, cheerfully, that she was feeling quite stupid at the moment.

“No need. Come back in twenty-four hours as you are,” he told her. “I’ll have my third floor by then, and you can make the barrier there.”

Cherise stared at the sign and then stared at Archimedes’ core. “... It’s only been a month since you made your second floor.”

“Not exactly,” the sign read, “but that’s a close enough rounding. I know a month per floor is slow given my mana production, but the first floors are the hardest. I’ll speed up as I go.”

He called Minute back to guide the two guild workers out.

A third floor wasn’t in the plans he gave me, Archimedes heard Cherise thinking in begrudging defeat.

He chuckled and gloated to himself, Of course not, or how could I trick you into so genuinely showing me that spell? Archimedes had known from the moment Cherise first stepped on his second floor that she was too off-balance from the sudden relaxation to consider how it would interfere with her work. That she hadn’t thought about it too much after leaving was just good luck on his end.

Now then, Archimedes took a look at his status, time to dig deeper.

Archimedes Species: Dungeon Rank: C Mana: 32,621 Accumulation: 780/h Abilities Absorb Substance, Create Creature, Create Structure, Destroy Creation, Dungeon Authority, Ether Conversion, Increase Creature Wisdom, Manage Loot, Move Core, Place Spawn, Bestow Creature Cores, Alter Creature