I had resolved myself to improve The Depths even further, but how was I going to do that? Well, I should take a look at my available monsters first. If I was going to add more to the floor, I might as well add something that wouldn’t interfere with the Striders and their hive. Or maybe even synergize with them.

Now there was a thought, I opened the Bestiary and started looking. There had to be something that would help out, let’s see… Abyssal Eye... No, that thing’s gaze attack was always active. The last thing I needed was to have my Striders hit by every conceivable status ailment out there just because the Abyssal Eye looked in their general direction. Maybe I would add it as a mini-boss once I could expand the floors enough to warrant one.

Hmm, Umbral Spider, its diet WAS Striders, hell no. No, no, no, no, no, heck this was just a bunch of stuff that didn’t care for or was plain just harmful to my Strider Hive. How in the world can I- what’s this?

Monster: Amber Crawler(Rare)

Genus: Elemental

Biome: Depths

HP: 880/880

MP: 1700/1700

Attack: 652

Defense: 453

Magic Attack:700

Magic Defense: 790

Strength: 326

Dexterity: 222

Endurance:580

Intelligence: 700

Wisdom: 560

Charisma: 800

Upkeep: 3, if Strider Den, Strider Hatchery, Starsilver Crag and Geode Cavern are present, Upkeep: -

Skills: Strider Symbiosis(Unique Racial), Strider Enhancement(Racial Unique), Wall Walk(Racial), Lithovore(Racial), Deceptive Camouflage(Racial), Cocoon(Racial), Metamorphosis(Racial), Sticky(Racial)

I looked up its appearance; it was… a slab of amber in the shape of a grub that was about the size of a cow. Why in the world was this thing Intermediate tier when Striders were basic? I knocked that question away almost immediately; it was a stupid one; the skills seemed good at just a glance. Not to mention this thing was really beefy stats wise. Also, it had “Metamorphosis”. That meant it would evolve into a stronger monster on its own when the conditions were right.

What did this thing evolve into, anyway? Pharos Wing... Not on the list. Guess evolution was the only way to get one. Could I at least look it up? Wait, the Mastery tab, if it wasn’t in the bestiary it had to be there!

I opened the Mastery tab and started looking; it didn’t take long, curious as to what it would look like. I pulled up the visual first; it was utterly breathtaking.

It was overall butterfly shaped, but seemed to be made from light, and not that harsh type of light that burns your eyes. But a gentle, warm and calming light, like a campfire at night, with iridescent colors swirling along its wings like the different colors in a fire. The thing itself was also absolutely huge, the size of an elephant. This had to be good, right?

Monster: Pharos Wing(Evolution)

Genus: Elemental Insectoid

Biome: The Depths

HP: 3000/3000

MP: 4000/4000

Attack: 1530

Defense: 1560

Magic Attack: 1600

Magic Defense: 1900

Strength: 1260

Dexterity: 1280

Endurance: 1250

Intelligence: 1300

Wisdom: 1450

Charisma: 1450

Upkeep: 25, if Starsilver Crag and Geode Cavern is present Upkeep: -25

Skills: Greater Strider Symbiosis(Unique Racial), Greater Strider Enhancement(Racial Unique), Enrage Hive(Racial Unique), Blazing Resurrection(Racial Unique), Wall walk(Racial), Lithovore(Racial), Luminous(Racial), Flight(Racial), Bewitching Beauty(Racial), Innate Spellcaster(Special), Healing Mastery(Special)(Holy), Evocation Mastery(Special)(Fire and Holy), Illusion Mastery(Special)(All)

I could barely afford support rooms for the Amber Crawler, so I couldn’t unlock the Pharos Wing itself. I had only gotten 3 Masteries from the party after all, and this guy alone was 5 Masteries. But if this is what the Amber Crawler would turn into, then I was all for it. It was pretty damn powerful and was an essence generator to boot with the support rooms present. The only thing that worried me was the knowledge that I would likely need the Pharos Wing sooner than I would prefer. Time to get to it.

I spent the three Masteries I had to unlock the Starsilver Crag and Geode Cavern, then spent my EP to unlock the Crawler. Silently hoping I had made the right choice. These small, well small to me at any rate, elementals were beefy. But I needed the evolved form more than anything.

I started to roam along the Depths looking for a good spot to place the Crag and Cavern; I wanted them close to the Strider Hive, so I would start to see benefits as soon as possible. But I also wanted them relatively hidden to not attract undue attention.

Hang on, what was I doing? So far, I had simply made all tunnels and hallways go left and right or forwards and backwards, but I knew I could make elevation changes, so what if-. I spent a bit of the essence I had recovered thanks to the Queen's recovery effect to create a small hallway at the top of the Queen’s chamber. Then from there to the right a bit and then tried to place the Geode Cavern. No issues at all, jackpot!

I immediately changed the interior of the hive a bit, moving the entrances to the Strider Hatchery as well as the Strider den high up on the walls. Preventing any access unless you could fly, climb or walk on walls. Adding even further safety to them, I tried to do the same to my Core Room. But that was no dice, figures. After a bit of tinkering, I found a compromise. Provided the way to the Core Room was passable by walking it was fine.

If that meant balancing on a very thin strip of stone over a pitfall spanning the entire length of the hallway, that was fine. I added hallways connecting to the Hatchery and Den to the pitfall hallway as well. And put pitfalls along their entire length, allowing winged variants easy access to the hallway in front of whoever was attempting to cross it. But made crossing impossible for anyone else unless they could move on walls or the roof. The dungeon allowed it since other entrances were available. That would be a nasty surprise for any uninvited guests should they somehow make it past the queen.

I had one of my Winged Striders test the thin balancing strip. Even though its weight should have caused the thin strip of stone to collapse it did not, probably a dungeon rule. Well then, let’s see if there were other ways to mess with it.

I made the thing tilt slightly at random intervals and made it so the path wasn’t straight. It now snaked this way and that which would upset the sense of balance of someone crossing it. And make it difficult to know where you could place your foot safely, causing any attempted crossing to slow to an absolute crawl.

Then I tried to look at the thin winding path from a distance. It was virtually invisible unless you were up close, and even then it would be hard to spot due to the black, non-reflective color of the ground. Against the pitch blackness of the pit below, it would be practically invisible. It was perfect.

With that extra line of security, I went back to the Geode Cavern. Which I now noticed, were filled with various gems of all types. From simple pieces of amethyst to diamonds and other precious stones, it was a beautiful sight. I created another hallway, his one leading towards the chamber prior to the Queen’s Chamber. Then I placed down the Crag, and boy was this room huge. Massive wouldn’t completely cover it as the crag disappeared into the darkness below and the darkness above.

The end of the room was outside my ability to see as well as into the distance. Not to mention that two semi trailers could have been parked front to back between each side of the crag itself. A short, barely a few steps long, hallway was needed to connect the Crag to the chamber prior to the Queen’s chamber. The entrance to the cavern was on one side of the crag. The entrance to the empty room was on the other and much further down. You would either be climbing for a VERY long time or required flight to get out of this place.

Even so, that was not what gave me pause as the room appeared in front of me, what did was the sheer beauty of the thing. Starsilver veins dotted the crag, and even in the darkness the places where the metal broke the surface shimmered like distant stars in the darkness. Creating an illusion of being under a moonless and cloudless winter night far from light of any city.

Only that the starry sky was all around you even under your feet. It was a breathtaking sight, and I was quite convinced that once a Pharos wing started flying around in there, it would only get better. It would be like a miniature sun, a dim sun, but a sun, nonetheless. Flying around in this undisturbed peace of heaven that had fallen to the ground and gotten buried beneath it.

After shaking out of my reverie, I remembered the eventual size of the Pharos Wing. So, I set about expanding the size of the hallways connecting different chambers of the floor. It would be pointless to have the Pharos Wing if it was trapped in just the Crag. And would also make it easier to make use of the Hives numbers to fight intruders. There would be no single choke point to bottle them all up at once I finished.

Then I placed the first Crawler in the Geode Cavern. The effect on the hive was almost immediate, mere seconds after placing it Striders rushed in and started to work on it. Massaging it, treating it like some kind of beloved pet or highly priced livestock.

So, an Amber Crawler was to a Strider what an Aphid was to an Ant, that made sense. Except, this thing could supposedly defend itself if its stats was an indication. Then again, with how strong everything was in this biome, natural predators would still just off it instantly, most likely.

Even so, it was interesting to see such a relationship between an elemental entity and an Insectoid; it made me wonder what other synergies were out there, waiting for me to find them. I placed about a dozen Crawlers, filling most of the space in the Cavern. To call the Hive ecstatic, would be an understatement. Even with my “Mind Reader Lv1” I could pick up on the sheer delight from the Queen and by extension the rest of the hive.

Having spent all my EP, I decided to see if I could find any new traps to set up. After which I would venture out to fish, as unappealing as that idea was. I needed sustenance and while water was not an issue due to the underground water that poured into this biome. That was not going to fill my hunger.

I opened the Devices menu and stopped… Resource Rooms? What in the world was that? Wait, come to think of it, both the Crag and the Cavern was tagged as that. I opened the Resource room header, Underground River, Underground Lake, Underground Mushroom Forest, Rest chamber, Treasury and More.

There was even stuff designed to be placed above ground that would be useful to me… And also adventurers… This stuff was supposed to lure such people in. But if the description was any indication, I could benefit from them as well, and so could my monsters if it produced something they could use. Like wild game to hunt or plants to eat.

I checked my TP 3 total, shouldn’t I have gotten more from killing those adventurers? Shrugging, I decided that I might as well make use of the River and Lake resources. Which I connected with the natural waterfalls that were pouring into my dungeon from different locations. Adding river resources that connected to pools of water that the cascading water was forming and then leading them all into a rather large Underground Lake resource.

I quickly realized that while they were called rooms, Resources could be placed in rooms already containing something else, including Resources. It just changed the name of the room in some way if I did, when I had all the different rivers connect before running into the lake. That room changed from “Underground River” to “Underground Delta” . I wonder how it would change if I added a river to a specific room.

.

Huh… this resource system seemed very interesting. I would have to see if I could come up with some clever way of using it in the future. For now, however, I had food to get, but I would not enter the river on the surface. Now I had subterranean and thus safe rivers to use, not to mention the lake.

Hmm, wait a moment, before I engrossed myself in getting food there was one final thing I needed to do. I opened the “Devices” menu again and looked around for what I had spotted earlier. Ah there it was the “Alarm” trap, I would not be caught by surprise again. I willed myself to the surface and placed an alarm trap on the stairs leading out.

A bit of fiddling later to figure out how and it had been customized, after I had to spend far more Essence than I was comfortable with. It would now signal me mentally rather than just making an absolute racket. A Silent Alarm that would warn me of any intruders larger than a cat that stepped into my surface control area. No more being caught by surprise in my territory.

Now then, time to enjoy a nice meal for me before retiring for the night. I flew over to the delta and started my hunt for food. About an hour later I was lying on the riverside, purring happily. Those fish were tasty. Far better than the ones on the surface, it was as if they were specifically made to entice my palette. Actually, now that I thought about it, they probably were, since I created the Biome.

Huh? As if to answer my question, I could suddenly hear a great deal of noise coming down the river. There in the middle of it was a small reddish brown and scaly thing. It looked a lot like a bipedal lizard, with a long sensuous neck and graceful limbs. It was fighting hard to stay afloat. It was beyond me, how in the world it had survived the trip prior to entering my dungeon.

But I was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. A Kobold could potentially be useful. If I could coax it into serving me, I could use it to improve my traps without having to pay any Essence. They were industrious little tykes that would be loyal as well, provided they were anything like in the Game. Only time would tell.

I rose and calmly lifted off into a glide, then swooped over the river and snatched up the struggling Kobold. I dropped it off on land, where it spent a great deal of time sputtering and coughing up water. It looked like I had saved it in the nick of time.

Once it had calmed down, it looked up at me and immediately stiffened for a few moments. Before tossing itself down on its knees and crawled forwards and reverently kissed my paw. “Ssatassha is most grateful to you, Great One, most grateful. Ssatassha hopes that the Great One will see fit to offer up your grace and allow Ssatassha to live even though she trespassed into your domain. She did not intend to trespass, she swears to the great dragons she did not!”

The little thing seemed utterly terrified and considering a Kobold would be about the size of a small child when it reached adulthood. I couldn’t really say I blamed her, even as I peered down at her I couldn’t help but feel pity for her current situation.

“Rise Little One, for I am not angry at you. I would, however, request that you tell me how you wound up inside the underground waterway that runs into my domain.” I smiled softly down at the small thing and I could see she relaxed a bit. “Ssatassha fell into the water while trying to capture a fish for the tribe. Great One, she was washed downriver and ended up in a cave and then pushed under the water for a long while. She nearly drowned holding her breath, before falling into your river”

“Fishing, that is an unusual diet for Kobolds, is it not?” Ssatassha stiffened a bit. “Ssatassha knows that it sounds silly, Great One. But we had no choice, human adventurers forced the Tribe away from our den. And we were running low on food” she looked up at me with a surprisingly earnest expression.

An entire tribe of Kobolds. That couldn’t have been better for me. “And now you are in need of a new place to settle” I finished for her. The Kobold hesitated for a moment before nodding. I gently picked up the Kobold and placed her on my back before taking off for the stairs. Then navigated the maze to the surface.

“Little one” I began as I put her down on the ground at the border of my territory. “If you and your tribe are willing to serve me. I will offer you all a place on the 2nd level of my Dungeon.” The little thing looked utterly crestfallen at my announcement for a few moments. Before she embraced, well, tried to embrace my left leg. Though it was way too big for her to get anywhere near to actually get her arms around it. “Thank you Great One, thank you! Ssatassha will tell the tribe immediately. We will happily serve you Great One!” her ecstatic smile faded. “Wait… which way is tribe?” her expression faltering once more.

I poked the Records, silence; I poked harder. Still no answer. I poked again, this time I actually got a response. To my utter surprise. . The Records sounded… distracted? Eh, whatever. I relayed the answer from the Records and also quickly caught some fish for her at the river to have as food for the journey.

With that done, the little Kobold set off bravely across the plain, a determined expression on her scaled face. It was actually somewhat adorable to see her scamper away as quickly as she could.

As she disappeared in the distance, I turned around and flew over in the direction that the adventurers I had let go earlier had scampered off to. That was where the other party had gone as well. To think a few hours walk in that direction was the biggest threat to my new existence. And yet all I had done to earn their ire was existing.

On that dour note, I took wing and flew back to the entrance. I noted that the stone walls of the surface maze had now reached higher than the height of a man. There would be no more easy trip to the dungeon entrance for intruders now.

With the alarm covering the area and this maze, I would have a great deal of time to prepare for any assault. Except an aerial one, or one that relied on such heavy firepower as to blow the stone walls to pieces. But as it was, it was now a proper circular maze protecting the entrance to my dungeon.

With a last glance towards the city or town, and with the sunset reflecting off the gray stones, I walked back underground and dissipated my form. It had been a rather strenuous day as I drifted down into my Pillar room and reformed Avatar. A nap would be nice right about now.

The next morning I busied myself with creating the cavern that would serve as a home for Ssatassha’s tribe when they arrived. I would need to unlock the den room in Masteries. However, I didn’t have any of those, so either I would need to somehow get more Mastery points. Or the crafty little things would have to construct the den themselves with materials from outside. I had no idea if that even worked, as it was I needed a Mastery and that meant I needed an intruder.

What was the requirement of an intruder to be an intruder anyhow? The fish in the river didn’t count as intruders, they didn’t even set off the Alarm spell despite meeting the size requirement, so what could be counted?

Just as I was contemplating that question the alarm actually sounded. Arriving at the surface, I saw a pack of wolves sniffing around the outer edges of my maze. The alarm had gone off. Did that mean they were intruders? Only one way to find out wasn’t there. The fight was… not much of a fight at all. I Roared, they died. Lv2 was clearly a step up from Lv1 in terms of damage. Then again, my stats had also increased by a lot since the last time. I checked my stats to see if this had been anything but pointless violence on my end.

Dungeon Name: Labyrinthia

Dungeon Biomes: Magical Maze, The Depths

Dungeon Level: 2

DEXP: 2/30

Depth: 2/2

Rooms: 24

Essence: 27/600

EP: 0

TP: 1

M: 1

Avatar Attributes

Avatar Race: Sage Sphinx (Legendary Unique Variant)

Avatar Gender: Female

Avatar Level: 2

EXP: 23/300

HP: 3500/3500

MP: 5750/5750

Attack: 555

Defense: 550

Magic Attack: 950

Magic Defense: 950

Strength: 57

Dexterity: 59

Endurance: 100

Intelligence: 205

Wisdom: 200

Charisma: 195

Synchronization: ∞

Titles: “Taken from an Other World”, “Cult Hater”, “Bringer of Justice”, “Helpful”, “Riddle Smith”, “Merciful”, “Mastermind”, “Fisherwoman”, “Dominatrix”, “Devious”, “Taboo Breaker” “Mistress of the Depths” “A True Sphinx”

Skills: Unbreakable Will(Racial), Labyrinth Sense(Racial), Flight LvMAX(Racial), Cleaving Swipe Lv2(Racial), Roar Lv2(Racial), Telepathy LvMAX(Racial), Akashic Records(Unique), Magical Labyrinth(Unique), Core Master (Compound), Blessing of Inlas(Mythical), Will Binder LvMAX(Special), Mind Reader Lv3(Racial), Enigmatic Mind Lv3(Racial), Forbidden Knowledge Lv1(Demonic), Babel(Unique)

Oh, hey, that had counted. At least it had given me a mastery point. The remaining TP I had also reminded me of something. The Depths critters would be fine food for the Striders. But the Kobolds would not be Dungeon Monsters, so they would need proper food, just what did a Kobold eat? . Hmm, I checked the Resource rooms. Was there anything in there that could be of use?

Hmm… pumpkins, farm, forest. All of these were useless, hmm no, no, that was a possibility. But I doubt the little guys would fancy going to the surface to collect food every day, plus I already had access to fish. Hmm, bingo!

This Underground Mushroom Forest was perfect. It had bugs, mushrooms, a subterranean species of rabbit that had the same color and patterns as a blue toadstool. And a strange cow like creature that apparently tasted delicious and had a rich, tasty and pretty damn healthy milk. Hmm, that actually sounded pretty tempting. Fish was nice and all, but a proper steak.

I could kill for that right now, actually in Essence I kind of had. As I looked at where the wolf corpses had been and now no trace of them remained. They had been absorbed and the useful items that could have been harvested from them was now stored into my inventory.

I returned to the area I had been digging for the Kobolds and expanded in drastically. Then I placed the Underground Mushroom Forest. The size of the chamber expanded much further than what I had dug, much, much further. Luckily, I had been smart enough to point this particular part of real estate away from the rest of the dungeon proper prior to digging. Which now turned out to be a good choice, given the absolutely silly size of this place.

It was an actual subterranean mushroom forest. I could literally FEEL the surge of Essence gain from having this place. I shook my head in disbelief. Note to self, rooms with “forest” or “plain” in their name will be quite literal in their sizes. Keep that in mind when planning out rooms.

Still, slightly shell-shocked, I placed the Den down close to the tunnel I had made for the Kobolds. The room immediately transformed into a “Mushroom Forest with Kobold Village”. Huh, so the room placed first would have priority in the naming. That made sense I supposed, didn’t really know what to expect there. I just hoped this would be good enough for the tribe when they arrived.

Having a new source of food, I decided to see if I could get something else on the menu than the fish. Don’t get me wrong, the fish was delicious. But you can only eat fish for so long before you start to crave other types of food.

Besides, it was getting close to lunchtime anyhow and I could do with some rabbits. Or maybe one of those cow things, I took wing and flew off into the forest to see what there was to find; It was a strange experience, as the entire room was illuminated by blue glowing bioluminescent fungi the size of Redwood Trees.

And the air was thick with spores lightly obscuring visibility. Despite this detriment I soon found my prey, a small rabbit sitting out alone in a clearing. Not a care in the world. It had a rather odd texture, but the taste was sublime. Decidedly something that I would eat more often. Hmm, wondered how it would taste properly cooked. Perhaps I could teach the Kobolds how to prepare proper food. I could find out, huh, that was actually not a bad idea.

I could teach the kobolds how to do things they probably had never considered. Not only that, I could also use them as scouts and spies outside my area of influence. I was literally stuck within it and I did not feel like expending more Masteries right now to unlock more surface control. Not until I was certain that there would be no more issues with the humans. Well, that was for later. The tribe was not even here yet, that aside I had more preparation to do for their arrival.