Sek informed Gorm that he would need a few hundred years till he got all his power back, despite the help the bond provided. He would help Gorm build his dungeon. After hearing about the circumstances, which led to Gorm becoming a dungeon, Sek was enlightened. The process Gorm used to transform his soul into the oak tree, and subsequently into the mana crystal; which then led to him becoming a dungeon, was a ritual that could only be used if the comprehension and harmony with nature reached a peak. This could explain why his nature affinity was so abnormally high.

But what really shocked Sek was what happened after Gorm had become a dungeon. He couldn’t think of anything that could make such a violent and fast dungeon expansion possible. Maybe he could find out more when he could have a look at the core room. The only thing stopping him from doing so immediately was the lack of a way to get into the core room.

A long discussion later, Gorm had finally accepted his new role in the world. He decided to do anything in his might to help Sek with his mission of upholding the balance. It felt great to finally have a greater reason than just to survive.

Sek confirmed Gorms decision to build the first floor before using his DPs. He even made the suggestion to wait with major DP expenditure until he reached the tenth floor and unlocked specialties. That would help him decide what he really needed and what not. Sek explained that only after finishing the tenth floor would he have the chance to buy packages. Packages were more cost-effective and catered to the needs of the dungeon.

That was when Gorm remembered that he could buy such a package. Sek instructed him to immediately check its information and then tell him what it said.

Natural Dungeon Package:

Available due to having fused your nature attuned core with a Magic Oak, having a functioning ecosystem and being in possession of at least 50 DP.

This package includes various abilities and specialties that will be added when you reach the required level to unlock them.

This package includes various common ecosystems.

This package includes various advanced ecosystems.

This package includes various common monsters.

This package includes various magical plants.

This package includes the choice for one sapient monster species.

This package includes various common building materials.

This package includes various advanced building materials.

If you buy this package all your creatures can’t be sustained by mana only anymore. You have sure to cover all their necessities with regular means.

This does not mean that your mana won’t influence them anymore. It will still fasten their development and strengthen them among other things.

Cost: 50 DP

When Sek heard this description he got excited. Despite its steep price, the package offered just too much of everything. He had seen dungeons with over 100 floors without even one functioning ecosystem. Ecosystems where one of the most important things for dungeons, if they wanted to grow fast and strong, they increased their mana pool and mana regeneration immensely. Besides that, they ensure that hardly mana is needed to maintain a room. Furthermore, many different ecosystems help with the purification of mana immensely. But even more important was the fact that he could already choose a sapient monster species, normally a dungeon had to reach level 100 to do so.

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After buying the natural package Gorm felt not unlike when he first awakened from his life as a mana battery. But because he was fully conscious, he felt information flowing into his mind. It was then, that he discovered the information to create the Endless Wilderness ecosystem and the monster packages he received. Gorm suddenly had the urge to build and create, but he managed to suppress this urge. He impatiently asked Sek what to do next.

‘You should have had the urge to build and create right now, am I right? Dungeons are emotion driven beings, you might not have noticed it before, but after becoming a dungeon you got more emotional. If I recall what you told me about yourself before your soul transfer, you were more cool-headed. Now that you finally connected to the dungeon part of your mind these impulses will get more.’ Sek had this theory from the start but after hearing Gorms impatient question he felt his theory confirmed.

‘Is there any way to change that? I don’t like the idea that I’m at the mercy of my urges.’ Gorm tried to be calm but the idea scared him, more than he cared to admit. He had always prided himself with his calm mind and seldom did something out of an impulse. The last time he did so he ended up trapped in a cave, before becoming a dungeon.

‘I probably have a way to help you, normally this technique his only used on older dungeons. For it to function you have to build your first floor. Then I help you to get into a form of trance and after between 50 and 100 years you will wake up again and the urges to build and the same, will disappear.’ What Sek didn’t tell Gorm was that he would transfer a part of Gorms soul in various animals and plants. The reason the technique was only used on older dungeons because young ones normally had a too weak soul, but he didn’t see a problem there with Gorm. Sek could have used the technique immediately, but he wanted Gorm to first build one floor so he could stabilize his core and soul. If he didn’t do so, Gorm could develop multiple personalities after he woke up.

Gorm saw some problems with the technique, but he believed that Sek wouldn’t harm him, because that would harm himself. Sek had told him to build as he felt on his first floor, he would only comment on it after Gorm woke up from the technique. Gorm said goodbye and made the decision to start to build his floor after he checked on Melia.

It was only a few hours since he had said goodbye to Melia and she was still trying to tame small animals. As a 7000-year-old dryad even a few weeks weren’t a long time to her, so she still hadn’t gotten bored. She told him that she already made a squirrel bring her a nut. Gorm didn’t tell her that that was probably only because she had a strong nature aura and not because of her taming skills. When he told her that the intruder was a death spirit and now bonded to him, Melia wasn’t too surprised. She had met various elemental spirits before. Among them was a nature spirit that told her mother about their objective and their practice of bonding with dungeons to achieve it. Gorm told her where to find Sek if she wanted to meet him.

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Gorm focused back into his core room and started to make plans of what he wanted to build. When he was going through some of the new information he now had access to, he found that on the tenth floor he had to build an opening to the outside for it to be considered finished. So he had to plan with possibly hostile intruders in mind. He soon discovered that he didn’t want his first floor on the level his core room was at. As he didn’t want intruders in his forest, but if he built the first floor where he should, they would definitely find it. After some time he decided on a general dungeon layout.

He would make the part of the mountain that was above the ground level of the cavity, that was his forest, into something where his creatures could live in peace. No intruder would come there. Beneath it, he would build normally, or at least accessible for adventurers and everyone else who wanted to come in there. He also wouldn’t put his core oak in the lowest floor, he would move it to the highest, elevation-wise, floor possible.

The first thing he did was to finalize the positioning of his 47 floors. Which was easy because they only consisted of the tubes that made up the mana absorption formation. These tubes couldn’t be moved, so he actually was only moving the idea of a floor. He put the tenth floor to the level where he wanted the entrance to be and then floors one to nine above it. From there he switched between adding them above or beneath the other floors.

The new first floor was approximately at the height of the first third of the room of his forest. While moving the floors around, Gorm discovered that the room that contained his forest wasn’t bound to any floor. Which was quite practical to make his custom dungeon structure a reality.

Now Gorm could finally start to build his first floor.