Picking up where I left off in the main hall of the 3rd floor I placed a clump of fireweed on the right just past a rotted log on the left of the hall. As the hall turned I placed large honeysuckles that looked more like a thicket or tree than a bush.

That gave me an idea. I dug under the path making a burrow for rabbits to live and attack from. Making several small exits for them in the curve of the hall and covering them with springy moss that would likely go unnoticed, it being a similar color to the grass lining the whole floor.

I made the entrance in the burrow big enough for a medium sized humanoid to squeeze through. Inside I placed a few mushroom colonies and some shallow pit traps with spikes at the bottom. More to scare and disorient than kill. Finally I placed a small chest. As a reward for searching the burrow.

As the main hall straightened again I placed a skullcap fungaloid. Past that was another clump of regular mushrooms. Then a short hall on the left just after one opening on the right. The left one was very short, ending in a bright, fragrant juniper bush loaded with berries. Around it I also placed several chanterelles and in the middle of all that temptation I placed a shrieker fungaloid.

At the opening of the right hall I placed 2 cherry trees and had them arching together almost making a doorway. The hall ended in a small square room. Here I placed a redcap fungaloid to disorient and 4 pseudo dragons to cause chaos. To add even more confusion I placed a pair of glowing crystals. Then dimmed the light in the room, hoping the faint light would work well with the hallucinogenic spores.

Past that room I made a deep cavase with a vine and plank bridge over it. The vines I was using were a bit precarious and likely wouldn’t hold much weight. But I did place a ladder on both sides of the pit.

On the other side of the pit from the hallucinogenic room was the river that ran down and around the floor. It started at the deep lake below the waterfall from the 2nd floor and ended as the hall made its last turn before the boss room.

Following the main hall past the hallucinogenic room, the hall widened and to the right side I made a garden plot with examples of each of my edible plants. Past that little garden the hall split.

To the left I placed a pillow bell fungaloid. It was almost 2 ft tall with a long narrow bell that faded from stark white to a soft blush pink. It stretched it’s tiny arms from it’s peachy pink stalk and yawned. There were no teeth in it’s little mouth but it was just so cute. With big eyes the orange color of chanterelle mushrooms.

“Arizo, look at this.” I cooed.

She looked at the image of the adorable mushy. “Oh my goodness!” She squealed “That is the cutest thing!”

“Watch this. Can you yawn for me?” I asked the little fungaloid.

As it yawned once more we both cooed at how precious this little mushy is.

I had to metaphorically shake my head to refocus on what I was doing. Past the power of cuteness, the hall was an S, curving first right, then left and ending back on the right where I put in a trap door that opened to one of the deepest parts of the river.

Most of the river on this floor would be between 3 and 4 feet deep. Making them waist to chest height on most humans. I did add some deeper areas that were 6 to 8 feet deep and the deepest area was 18 to 20 feet deep. As an incentive for exploration I placed a chest on the bottom of that area. The bottom of the chest was buried in the sand and silt of the riverbed. Another chest was placed in a shallower part of that area, but this one I placed in a little alcove about mid way between the surface of the water and the riverbed.

In the bend of the S hall past the pillow bell I placed a chicken of the woods fungaloid. The description said it would look like a normal chicken with sharp claws and a spore breath attack. As I looked it over I had to somewhat agree. The fungaloid was chicken shaped and was brown like most chickens but…. well... It looked more like a wood/mushroom carving of a chicken. There were no feathers and it didn’t really look soft and fluffy like a chicken. It’s feet and beak were also the bright red of fly agaric. I just shook my head and moved on. Though I doubt I’ll use many more of these.

Turning my attention away from the not chicken I looked in on my guests for a moment. This also brought my attention to several messages that I had ignored while working.

Blueprint Unlocked: Trash Poison Paste

Blueprint Unlocked: Trash Healing Paste

Blueprint Unlocked: Common Recovery Paste

Common Recovery Paste: A thick paste made through alchemy or potion making that cures minor poison, stun or slow when ingested.

Trash Healing Paste: A thick paste made through alchemy or potion making that heals 1 Health Point per minute for 5 minutes when applied to a wound or ingested.

Trash Poison Paste: A thick paste made through alchemy or potion making that causes 1 Health Point of damage per minute for 5 minutes and has a 1% chance to cause lesser poison for 2 minutes. Must be ingested.

Warning:

Constructs Cannot Acquire Skills or Experience from Skills.

Dungeon Core Will Not Receive Recipes for Construct Creations.

I stared at boxes, dumbfounded, for a long while.

“Arizo, What’s the difference between a blueprint and a recipe?”

The fairy looked over at me. “The blueprint allows you to make the item. A recipe is the instructions on how the item was made. Like magical scrolls you can drop these recipes as loot or have other creatures read them to learn how to make the item. Did you unlock a recipe?”

“No but I did learn something.” I showed her the boxes.

“Oh. I would have warned you if I had known you were attempting to make healing potions. Next time have the kobolds or goblins work on potion making. Living creatures can gain skills and experience points from those skills. They may even gain a class if they are talented or work hard enough.”

“That’s good to know. Looking over my items I also realized I had the healing salve that Olive left for me that I had forgot about.”

Arizo chuckled. “You were still a bit loopy from your ascension.”

“True. I’m going to use the recovery paste and healing salve on the elf that’s poisoned and see if that helps.”

Ferryman followed my orders and opened the elf’s mouth to feed her the paste. It took some coaxing to get her to swallow the thick green mush but when she finally did there was a very soft glow around her. I knew something had happened but checking her status, the poisoning was still there. I had them give her another dose and this time the poison changed to minor poison. A 3rd dose of the goop and her poison effect was gone. This allowed her health to start slowly ticking up like the other elf.

I then instructed it to cover their wounds in the healing salve and leave them be. Ferryman moved back over to one corner of the room and became motionless.

That taken care of, I checked everything else in the dungeon, before returning to my work on the 3rd floor.

I decided to finish the river area. I made a smaller and shallower stream almost across the river from where the pillow bell’s hall ended. At the end of this stream I built a dry area of rich dark dirt. In the center I placed an amethyst crystal golem surrounded by a ring of fly agaric. After a bit of fiddling I set it so a chest would appear if the golem was defeated.

Moving away from the stream entrance and around the final bend of the river. Just to mess with adventurers I placed a rather large chest out in the open with no creatures or traps around it. By the time someone reaches this area I hoped they’d be too paranoid to trust it. Inside I placed 2 copies of my healing pastes and salve.

Arizo shared a giggle with me when I told her about the cash of healing items.

“Hey,” I called once we had calmed. “Is there a way to make a random room or maze?”

“I don’t understand.” Arizo looked toward me perplexed by the question.

“Well, there’s nothing else I’ve planned for this part of the river. Other than a few creatures. And it feels blank. Like I need something here but I don’t know what, so I thought if you knew of a trap or puzzle where a randomly generated maze or room could be made, that would fit the space.”

Arizo landed on my core and put her fist under her chin thinking.

She frowned. “I’m sorry but all I can think of is a shifting maze.”

“And that is?”

“Making a small maze like on the first floor with the mimics but setting it as a trap so the walls randomly shift. Many maze dungeons will have massive maze levels with multiple shifting traps to confuse explorers.”

“That is a thought for another floor. On this one I just want it to be an optional side area. For extra rewards.”

Arizo’s wings fluttered. “Why not make a really enticing reward. Like an exit to the entry hall or a pass that lets them skip the first level or something.”

“Or a key that lets them use the 3rd floor door to appear back in this maze instead of the beginning of the floor.”

“Oooh. You can set it to work with any door to the 3rd floor. So they can do the 1st and 2nd then skip the first half of the 3rd floor.” Her voice got higher as she thought of the possibilities.

“That sounds perfect. Now, you said this was a trap so can I add puzzles as well? If I make this maze a bypass of the first 2 levels I don’t want it to be easy.” After a pause, an idea came to mind and I wanted to grin. “And this can be my physical connection to the 4th floor. Allowing people to skip this boss fight.”

“Yes.” A mischievous smile took over her cute face. “You could also put traps in the stairwell to the 4th floor.”

“Hum. I don’t think so.” Arizo looked at me curiously. “I plan to make a straight shaft with just a few ledges and a smooth pole people will need to slide down. Taking this will already require faith and bravery so I don’t plan to add any traps.”

“You seem to like puzzles so maybe a small puzzle for each ledge.”

“That is a good idea.” I stored that thought and turned my attention to making said maze.

Digging into the stone at the side of the river I made a large almost natural looking cave. I had it slope upwards with a set of rough stone steps rising out of the river. After 4 steps that were completely dry I made an open area where explorers could rest. But this would hopefully also signal them that something was special and different about the place.

At the back of the natural stone cave I made a rather fancy engraved door. I inlaid it with shiny copper. The pattern was a copy of the maze from the first floor. Below and around the image I had swirls and twists of copper. I tried to make them look like vines twisting and curling every which way. Finally I added some bright green aventurine and peridot leaves on the vines.

Past the door I made a short hall. At the end of the hall I paused thinking of what I wanted to do with this space. Making up my mind I split the hall into a T. Turning right I made another short hall that turned back left before opening into a long room. Skipping over turning it into a maze right now. I made another short hall at the other end of the room. At the end of this one I made a gate and connected it to the entry hall. Beside the gate I built a stone pedestal and placed a copper key on it. The key’s head was round with a small maze carved out of it. In the center of that maze was a small square with 3 hash marks on it, just like above the gate it would allow access to.

Down the other hall I made a smaller square room. At the end of that one was another short hall that ended in a square opening. I dug the perfect square straight down until it was at the same depth as my other 4th floor rooms. Which ended up only being 40 feet. With a bit of a wicked smile I dug even farther down. Stopping at an even 100 ft, I built a small room with the square ending at the ceiling. I wasn’t sure how I would connect this to the rest of the 5th floor, or if I’d just make it another dead end but I wanted my shaft to have more danger than a 40ft drop.

From the bottom I made a single pole of ebony wood that extended to the ceiling of the maze above. Working from top down I made ledges every 15 feet so the last ledge would only have a 10ft drop. I didn’t make the ledges very wide, only 3 in for people to cling or stand on. With the 10ft by 10ft square shaft it would be easy to miss the small ledges while falling. There were 8 ledges in total including a quarter circle at the top of the shaft in the left front corner. The next one was in the middle of the left wall. Then the left back corner, then the middle of the back wall, then right back corner, and around until the last ledge was in the middle of the front wall.

Following Arizo’s suggestion I made small puzzles on the wall near each ledge at about chest height. Provided the sapients I’ve seen so far are average. For the first 2 the puzzles just opened a small space that would have a random item inside. If those 2 were failed the space would still open but there would be nothing inside.

The next 2 I had the puzzle open a door. This would also extend the ledge to meet the ebony shaft for a short time until the puzzle reset. The first door I had led to a long hall that opened to one of the rooms on the 4th floor. The 4th ledge also opened a door to a long hall. This one going in another direction and leading to a different room on the 4th floor. Though as it was farther down the hall had an incline to reach the plane of the floor.

The 5th and 6th puzzles opened doors that led to small rooms. Inside the 5th puzzle I placed wood and a ring of stones for a fire. Letting it be an empty area to rest. The 6th puzzle’s room was larger and I placed 2 clay golems. Both blocky and only vaguely human-shaped. While they were taller and wider than my Jack golem, they only cost 2 DP. I set them to attack anyone that entered the room.

Behind the 7th puzzle was another simple prize like the 1st two. And finally behind puzzle 8 I placed a short hall, small square room and a gate to the entry hall. I wanted to give adventurers plenty of chances to leave. Even if I planned to never let them use the doors in reverse. These gates also let me move my creatures around easily.

“I’m finished with the shortcut down to the future boss floor.” I spoke out loud, allerting Arizo. “I just have a short section of river to go and then the last 1/4 of the floor and the boss room. Then I am done with floor 3 and can fully populate it.”

Arizo smiled at me. “You are making amazing progress. And with such large floors. Adventurers are going to love you. All these resting places, interesting sights and pranks they can laugh about with their teammates.”

“I hope so. I want to learn more of this new world I was reborn into. Test my limits and see what I can do. One day I’d like to dig deep enough to reach the underground places you mentioned.”

“Deep Vale, is the name of the underground.” She corrected.

“Then I plan to open an entrance in Deep Vale.”

“We are many, many leagues from there. How deep have you gone so far?”

“The end of the 1st floor is 90 ft below the entrance. This room is 43 ft deeper than that. The 3rd floor is 220ft below us. And the 4th floor is 40ft below that. The shaft I just built extends 110ft below the 3rd floor and is currently my deepest point. It is 463 ft below the entrance.”

She was grinning at that information. All of it was in the back of my mind and I could also tell how wide each room and floor was along with the volume of the entire dungeon. I found that knowledge to be both instinctual and amazing.

“As far as I know the highest point of Deep Vale is 15 miles below sea level. That is over 79,000 feet.”

“400 ft and 4 floors means by the time I reach there I’ll be on floor 790.” Excitement and glee colored my voice. Arizo had a matching wild smile.

“I have little doubt that some of your floors are going to become massive caverns 100’s of feet deep.”

“Maybe. If I had more flying creatures that could take advantage of the open space. But Perhaps I will come up with something to make the floors larger. However I’m not going to make a bunch of boring floors just to reach my goal. I want to have fun and play around along the way.”

Her smile turned soft. “I’m glad. I’ll help anyway I can.”

“I have no doubt. Now get back to training with the shadow.”

She laughed and shot a ball of energy at the floating black mass. It looked toward her from where it was investigating the cherry tree near the door but didn’t otherwise react to the attack. I could tell that Arizo had only done 1 point of damage. Killing the level 1 shadow would take a while as it has 15 health and was constantly healing.

Leaving her to train, I went back to finishing the 3rd floor.

Moving past my cave and down the river I placed a large rock like the one on the second floor. It has a puzzle that if it’s solved incorrectly activates a nearby trap. In the last few feet of the river I placed 2 chests. One made of stone, hidden in the river rocks and blocked by plants. The other, buried in sand and grit at the bottom of the river. I was curious about people’s abilities to find treasure chests.

I ended the river in a deep round pool that would be nice to swim or bathe in. Currently I don’t have any other plans for the pool. Though I did make a shallower part that ran around the side closest to the rest of the floor. That way people could walk around the pool and reach the river exit I put there. To discourage visitors from wandering the river and skipping the rest of the floor the exit was covered by a curtain of poison ivy. Deciding to be a bit wicked I also placed a Stangler near that exit.

Having the water feature complete I turned my attention back to the actual dungeon floor. I had left off at the power of cuteness. The pillow bell was still super cute, the not chicken was sitting at the base of the fungaloid and looked to be asleep. While the pillow bell petted the smaller being.

Leaving the pair I moved on to the other hall. Stepping back and looking over what I had done and what was left to do I decided to add another element to this floor. I dug out another underground rabbit burrow. It encompassed the next bend of the hall and I even extended it up to join with the other burrow. To make the floor more interesting and diverse I spread the burrows into long tunnels that curved under the river and the boss room. I wasn’t sure if I’d use the burrows to add creatures to the boss fight or flood them from the river but that option was now there.

The burrows were still small so adults would need to crawl around them. I added a few more treasure chests around the tunnels for people that were tenacious enough to find them. Though some of the chests were puzzles or trapped.

Focusing back on the last bend of the main hall I put several trees along the edges of the hall. They were all in different stages. Some just budding, others in full bloom and a couple that were weighted down with fruit. All of them were tall and broad. I opened up the higher parts of the wall on the right so these treetops could be seen from the river. Between the trees were bushes of juniper and honeysuckle. Along with blue flax and foxglove to add color and texture.

Just past that explosion of plant life I transitioned to ferns and fungi. Large and small fungal growths on the ground and even the walls. This area was split. One hall forms a loop and the other almost forms another. One end was the location of the river entrance where the strangler now resided, the other was the path to move forward.

In the tree covered area I placed the new boar blueprint I haven't used yet. The creature was impressive. Standing 3ft 4in at the shoulder with thick, coarse, dark brown hair covering its whole body. However I think anyone facing this beast would be distracted by the 4 thick ivory tusks coming from its mouth.

I was a bit surprised by the boar because I could immediately tell it was intelligent. Not as smart as my kobolds or titan rat snake but definitely smarter than the regular snakes and chickens.

Trying out another blueprint I put a goat in the mushroom loops. It was about half the size of the boar with 2 short horns on the top of its head. Her coat looked soft and was a patchwork of brown and white. She looked around the area, let out a bleat and started investigating. I couldn’t suppress a giggle. I could tell this girl was curious and adventurous. She’d likely wander and get into trouble. I couldn’t wait. She was also intelligent but less so than the boar.

I added a male goat to the loops as well. He was the same size as the female but his horns were a bit thicker and his hair a bit longer. He also started wandering the area and checking things out.

Leaving the 3 creatures to get settled in, I warned them about the strangler that would have no qualms about killing and eating other dungeon residents. Seeing as the goats were likely to wander, I put a man sized skullcap fungaloid in each of the loops.

Past the loops I put a short hall then a larger room with an actual door. Inside there was a wooden floor in place of the dirt and grass found on the rest of this level. In the room I made some human sized chairs around a fire pit. I placed a chest in one corner with some meat inside. A barrel of clean drinking water and another smaller room with 3 beds so visitors could rest and recuperate.

The room looked out of place with the rest of the level. After glaring at it for a while I had an idea. I made the chest look like a tree stump. Created another stump that was big enough to be a seat and make the chairs look more rough cut than they had. I also changed the doors so they were made of logs instead of sheets of wood.

Leaving the room for now I followed a winding hall to the boss room. I made this entrance a massive cherry tree with the door carved in the middle. Inside the boss room I scattered trees, bushes, mushrooms and fallen or decaying logs around in a haphazard kind of way. From the moment I started this level I knew who the boss was going to be.

Skipping that summoning for now I made a short stone hall on the right wall of the boss room.

“Arizo, I'm moving us down to the next floor.”

The little fairy looked my way, coming out of her meditative state. “The third floor is ready?” she questioned, but sounded excited.

“Yep. I’m going to call the guard in so it doesn’t have to walk all the way down.” After the stone golem had entered I made the move.

“Now one last thing. I think we need an upgrade on our room.”

She looked at me curiously.

By now it was just a simple flex of my skills and mana to make the room a 20ft by 20ft square. I updated the flooring to slate tile. The various shades of stone added interest. The runic circles were preserved, making a ring of plain basalt a few feet from where I float. Just inside the rune circles I placed a ring of foxglove in various shades of pink, white and purple.

I made the cherry trees on either side of the door grow taller but retain some lower branches. I also shifted their growth stage so they would only be in bloom. By the look on Arizo’s face I could tell the fragrance of the blossoms permeated the room. I added a pear tree to the opposite wall from Arizo’s hammock.

With a bit of mischievousness I removed the chair I had made. In it’s place I crafted a new one out of ebony with a leather seat and back. As a finishing touch I added several amethyst growths from the ceiling and had them glow making the whole room brighter.

I sat quietly and waited for Arizo’s reaction. The shadow was floating around and checking out the new space and plants. The little pseudo dragon that I had all but forgotten about came out of one of the cherry trees to see the changes as well.

She squealed and zoomed around the room. “It’s much bigger and smells so nice. The cherry and lavender. I would have never thought to put them together. You are becoming a real nature dungeon.”

With a chuckle I replied. “I don’t think so. I’ve just been flooded with things, people, and happenings. I’d love to have some time to explore what I want to be.”

“We have forever.” She came over and sat on my core. “Literally forever. I would guess you have only ever been mortal but time is meaningless to us. Your creations will live as long as you wish them to. Even creatures that move in will have extended lives. So while it may feel like too much right now, in 100 or 1000 years this month will be nothing.” She patted me with a soft smile.

“I hope we don’t change too much. In 1000 years I want us to still be able to laugh at new pranks and coo at cute creatures. By the way, how old is the oldest dungeon, Hue?”

“3454 years this spring.”

Silence filled the room as I tried to comprehend being alive that long.

“Anyway. Do you want to go into the boss room and watch me make her?”

“YES!” She cheered and zoomed out the door as soon as I opened it.

With a chuckle I waited for her to get in position before I placed the blueprint and selected to have them become the boss. We both watched as a human sized cocoon appeared and the room started to change. I had made it a massive area but it grew even larger. Now it’s bigger than my whole first floor. The cocoon also grew larger.

Everything started to settle. The grass was thicker and lusher. The trees looked healthier and more vibrant. The shrieker I had placed changed slightly, taking on a green hue, becoming more willowy and tree-like. It didn’t show as a different species but it made me think about experimenting with more of my creations than just using their blueprints.

Before I could get too swept up in a creative storm the cocoon started to crack. Inside had been a dryad but was now something more. Instead of the greenish brown body of a regular dryad, this woman was a deep, almost black mahogany. She looked similar to the elves. With a sharp angular face. Her eyes were the color of honey and glowed lightly. Her hair was a collection of weeping willow branches, vibrant green with a few streaks of gold. The hair-like branches were tucked behind her large pointed ears and hung down to her knees. Though they swayed and moved as if in an invisible breeze. She also stood over 9ft tall.

Arizo stared at her in shock. “Wow, you are amazing.”

“Thank you guardian.” The dryad replied. Her voice was very inhuman, it sounded like wind through branches and the creaking of old wood.

I looked her over and it showed she was a Dryad Matriarch. “She has 250 health and 110 mana. You my dear are tough.”

“Thank you Creator.” From her it sounded more like a name than worship. “I will do my best to protect you and our home but I have no desire for violence.”

“I will not force you to fight. I’ll also let you know about any that get near your domain.”

She smiled. “I appreciate that Creator.”

I sent her a mental nod but turned my attention to the snake, spider and rabbit that had been in the room before it changed. None of them were different species but they looked different than the others I had created.

The spider was slimmer and looked faster. The rabbit became brown and its fur took on a wood grain like pattern. Lastly, the taipan looked longer and thicker. It took on a reddish color like cherry wood. And I just knew its poison was even more deadly.

“I’m going to meditate for a while before working on anything else.” I informed Arizo who was chatting with the dryad.

She waved to me and I let my concentration lapse.