We tend to think we have a pretty good grasp on a situation pretty much our entire life; we have friends, family, a stable job, a car and even a pet of some kind. Yet despite this feeling of surety that it’s there, all it takes is a single misstep to lose it all. I quickly realized I had made such my misstep might have been to grind my income into the dirt. I had spent all my Essence after breakfast… by adding 2 new hallways to the first floor labyrinth. They increased my income from 5 to 6 a day. This was bad, terrible even, I needed an Essence boost and badly. My bad habit of going overboard on spending reared its ugly head again.

If my gain right now were this bad, I would run out too quickly and it would take weeks for me to get to a more stable gain. I had the dead cores I could buy from Yndali to help supplement it, but the dead cores could be hit-and-miss. It was like a loot box. Sometimes it was amazing, sometimes it was worthless. I simply couldn’t rely on it to work out, I also couldn’t rely on a-

. Ok, that’s off, not only is this way too early for Yndali to have gotten new cores considering I only got one last time. But it’s not even dark out, to top it off its Ezekiel again. While it should be Mandol’s turn, something didn’t add up.

. Any insight to share? . I willed myself to the surface, but didn’t materialize. He was holding the usual bag, and he was looking around with a nervous expression.

I Materialized in midair and triggered flight to stay aloft. Then I fired off Mind Reader at maximum strength at him. Nothing, hell, I couldn’t even read Ezekiel’s mind. That set off even more warning bells. It was as if he wasn’t there at all, and he kept ignoring me. Wait, a moment... There, on the edge of my senses, a presence, barely noticeable. I ignored the obviously fake Ezekiel and zoomed over to it. I landed in front of it at full speed before the presence could flee.

A fox? “Aww, you found me. How did you see through my “Perfect Illusion” skill?” The fox pouted. A monster then. “Your illusion was good enough to even trick my alarm trap. However, it had no mental presence. You on the other hand did. So, you were easy to find, despite slipping in unnoticed. Now speak, why are you here, and speak quickly, I am currently not in a good mood.”

The fox looked up at me again; the POOF turned into a bipedal fox dressed in a small black gi; It had two long, bushy swishing tails and by its side was a small sword of some kind. A Fox Spirit, that would explain why the alarm trap didn’t trigger, it was not meant to deal with spirits of any kind.

“My most profound apologies, but that information is reserved solely for the Core of this labyrinth, if you would be so kind as to fetch it, chop, chop, servant.” I looked at the fox for a moment, in utter silence. The fox looked back, tails wagging, then hesitated for a moment. It’s wagging slowed, then stopped when I didn’t move. “Oh wait… don’t tell me…” I started tapping a paw impatiently.

“My most sincere apologies, Core. Xi did not mean to offend you!!” It started bowing over and over. “Enough, what is it that you wish to say.” My mood was already dour with the whole essence situation and not this annoying little thing played a rather unsightly prank on me to boot.

“Oh, right, the message! Umm… it is here somewhere.” It started tapping its tails, looking for something, before pulling out a small ball and held it up to me. I took it and the moment I did there was a flash of light and the Illusion of another fox spirit appeared. She had white fur and nine long beautiful tails swished behind it. She was dressed in an adorned Kimono and many beautiful pieces of jewelry. She looked the epitome of Sengoku era Japanese nobility.

“Oh finally, good work Xi.” The illusory Spirit said. “Anything for you Milady!!” Xi responded, bowing deeply as he or she did, I honestly couldn’t tell. “Core, sorry I know you don’t have a name yet… so what should I call you?” she paused and smiled gently. I was about to point out that I had a name and properly introduce myself. OK, then. Not sure why, but Archives usually had a reason.

I simply nodded, “Core is fine, may I ask about the reason for this intrusion?” she smiled. She was... pleased? Score one for the Archive. “Yes, of course, I apologize if my servant offended you in any way. Xi can be a bit mischievous at times, aren’t you Xi?” I waved it off. “I was in a rather terse mood for other reasons. Xi’s choice of prank was very poorly timed as a result because it was related.” I replied, the Illusory Spirit Noble nodded sagely. “I see, well maybe what I have to say will lighten your mood.”

The Illusion of this spirit sat down on a small futon. “I am Yrsha the Diviner, a core recently released from the guild after being imprisoned for over 15000 years. I was curious as to the reason for my sudden freedom. So, I did as my title suggested and divined to learn the truth of it and I saw you, Core of another world. I do not know what you did exactly, but I do know I and every other core freed by the Decree have you to thank in some way. Xi…” The little Fox spirit ruffled around inside its furry tail again and pulled out two spheres. The small spirit handed them to me. “These are Essence Orbs I created using one of my Skills. Take them as my thanks, I wish I could do more. But I have a lot of work to do to fix the damage the Humans forced me to bring to my own dungeon. And for what? To sate their lust for riches and materials.” I carefully took the orbs.

“Thank you, though to be honest I didn’t really do much.” the fox spirit tittered a bit. “You did enough, and that is what matters, farewell, Core, may we meet again under more favorable circumstances. Under which you might be willing to actually reveal your name? I don’t fault your caution, but you have no enemy in me, I assure you. I owe you far too much.”

Her face suddenly turned serious for a moment. Her expression far more stern and I could see the wisdom of this ancient spirit clearly in her eyes now that they didn’t twinkle with mischief. “Try not to get yourself tamed, the effect on one’s psyche are, not pleasant. It’s like being trapped inside a dream, a dream that refuses all emotions except those who make your owner happy.” I couldn’t help but nod, It was not as if I needed more incentives to not get tamed. Not with the whole “Brainwashed into Inlas’ Avatar” thing hanging over my head.

The orb stopped shining and Xi quickly put it back where he? She? Found it, and with a wave scampered off. I knew fox spirits rarely stayed locked to one gender for long, so guessing was difficult if they didn’t dress in a particular way.

Still, I found her behavior a bit strange. If she knew I had a name, she probably also already knew what that name was, so why insist on playing dumb? .

But she introduced herself. . Right. Either way, I got some much-needed essence out of it, now to use it to expand the Crag and get more income.

Having placed the orbs in my inventory, I quickly dissolved and returned to the 2nd floor’s Starsilver Crag. Once there, I landed and took out one orb and gave it a closer look. How did I use this thing? Really? This thing was the size of a basketball and I had to eat it? SERIOUSLY? Blugh, If I choke on this thing I am blaming you.

. Easy for it to say, I opened my mouth, stuffed the entire thing inside and then tried to swallow. There was a… strange sensation as the orb started to rapidly shrink, then just vanished. Once I checked I had gained 1000 Essence, nice, OK expansion time!

I tried to place the crag and… nothing, ok why? There was no explanation and there was no indication there was a limiter. So what gives? Why couldn’t I expand the crag? I tried placing another one in a different location, thinking it might need more space, but still nothing. Was the room a onetime thing? Nope, that wasn’t it either. More Geode caves? Nope, still nothing. I seriously could only have one? That was a problem if that was the case, Archives?

.

Not surprised the Records never told me that. Heck, it probably would have just flat-out lied about it. Mastery menu, here’s hoping I can… crap, 6 Masteries off. Makes sense it would not be too terribly cheap, since I could use it to expand a biome that only houses Essence generators and maybe advanced creatures. Though I hadn’t really looked into that what else could get among those here, wait, what was this?

Star Lilies? That was a weird name of a dungeon item specific to the depths. What did it do? Hmm, lets see here attracts Pharos Wings… grows on water… increases Pharos Wing upkeep? That seemed like a horri- wait. Archives, how does Upkeep increase work for things with Negative Upkeep?

.

What… things? . You know what the Things are? . Shouldn’t you just know? . So if I want for you to know what it is. . Some Star Lilies it is, just hoping I am not making a mistake.

I unlocked the lilies, waving farewell to the 4M I had remaining. Ugh being low on resources sucks, I missed being able to just grab what I felt like back in the game. Those were the days. . Right focus, how many of these can I safely place. .

Joy, well, I needed the extra upkeep income, so it was not like I had a choice I placed one lily. Wow these things were big, then again they had to be if they were to be of use to the elephant-sized Pharos Wings. What I really found interesting about the flower was how it shimmered and glowed in the cave’s darkness. No wonder it would attract the Things. Speaking of which, how was it looking? . So, each of these would increase the upkeep by 1.

Another one down and another increase. Still, no response from the Things. 19e/d. Risk it for a biscuit. At 26e/d there was a slight ripple across the water. . A fourth Lily. There was a definitely bigger ripple this time. . Should I? On one hand, these things were probably bad news. On the other, I had no clue of what they were or what they were capable of or even their disposition towards me or my dungeon. Screw it, one more only one.

I placed it and I could see waves as dark shapes coiled underneath the surface. Only to slowly sink out of sight. . I agreed. Whatever they were, they were large. No, not large, colossal. Or were there even multiple Things? Could that be just one gargantuan Thing? The idea did not fill me with confidence. Time to stop pushing my luck.

With that done, I hopped on over to the third floor and started to re-make the passage outside of the Cavern leading to the Deep Labyrinth. By creating a veritable maze of tunnels, passages and the like all moving around in various directions, even up and down. It would make it far less fun for intruders to get into the biome at large. What with some intersections having no less than 8 different tunnels to choose from. All of which were identical and with no hint as to where to go and no way to mark your passage.

I had a pretty good guess that it wouldn’t stop determined explorers. Or if they had a way to dig holes in the tunnels, but it would make for a good way to exhaust them even further. Combined with how miserable I could make their life prior to this floor, and it would probably have them question their sanity by now.

Honestly making their life a living hell, so they would leave appealed more to me way more than if they were killing them. Even if it would stunt my growth as a dungeon. Survival was one thing, but even as I was losing the connection to my humanity as I continued to synchronize with my different forms on every evolution. I found that it didn’t change my morals in any drastic way, or if they had, I had not noticed.

Speaking of, how was my current synchronization? Why only 5%? . What about the Deep Labyrinth itself? . Ah, that made sense. That way I couldn’t just spam Deep Labyrinth on every floor and get a bunch of free synchronization. .

Probably a good idea to not antagonize someone who could make you feel that vulnerable just by giving you the old “once over” looking for a skill. Sarcasm now? I didn’t even know the skill could do that. . Woo-hoo!

Lienru had something new this time. There was still the usual tea, but today’s menu was not Shroomcow Steak, but Sporabbit. To be exact, Sporabbit sautéed in a creamy sauce made from Shroomcow milk and several powdered mushrooms. Seriously, that kobold was a culinary mastermind. Heck, I bet she could make rocks into a tasty meal at this point. . Wait, seriously? . Huh, at least the skill agreed.

After Dinner, I gave the Duergar a checkup; The wall was already as tall as I was. Damn, these guys worked FAST. They had made the walls a part of the fort itself for easy access once it was finished, and they were hard at work. I noticed that they had wrangled up some bigger critters off this floor. Horse sized vaguely spider like things that they seemed to use as beasts of burden. The difference between the two was that this thing had ten legs in place of eight. And face more akin to that of an Evil Eye. A distant relative, perhaps?

. Eh it was idle musing anyhow. Still, their pace was impressive, The Duergar King wasn’t kidding when he said it would only take a few days to finish. Color me impressed.

Oh? Well, then better check this out. Willing myself to the dining room once more I Materialized just in time to have Ssatassha eagerly grab my left paw “Great One, Great One! You must see this, come to the Kobold village!” Now very curious about what was going on. I picked up the excited Kobold and dropped her on my back as I flew off, much to the delight of Ssatassha, who squealed in delight.

The Village was in an uproar when we arrived. And it was easy to see why, as in the middle of the plaza was a giant beetle with a mushroom cap for a shell. And by giant, I mean it dwarfed me. What in the blazes was that?

.

So, now I could have Kobold Alchemists? . I had given the Kobold free rein of the library to use as they saw fit, provided they didn’t write in or destroy the books. So, they would have the time.

Nice. “A great find Ssatassha, I am happy for your tribe.” Ssatassha seemed even more happy to hear my approval. “Great One we are about to have a feast in celebration, please join us, friend Lienru is cooking.” A feast and Lienru was on food detail? Sign. Me. Up!

I… what, where? The Core Pillar? How did I get here, GAAAAH my head. Oh right, the party. Ugh, must have eaten something that didn’t agree with me. . But how did I get drunk if I am immune to poison? .

Seriously, those were separate? . Kill me now. .

Outstanding, I had made an utter fool of myself in front of my creatures. That wasn’t embarrassing or anything. .

So, I didn’t say or do anything mean? .

Blugh, not a good way to start the day at all, I grabbed my aching head once more. . I was not really in the mood for food, in fact, the very idea made me wanna hurl. But Lienru meant well, so I could at least take a small bite. Besides, I needed some food in me if I meant to last the day.

Arriving in the dining room, I gingerly sat down. “Feeling a bit under the weather, Great One?” Lienru smiled somewhat bemusedly. “That would be… an understatement.” I grabbed my head and flinched again. “This should help” she handed me the potion. I took it and after a quick inspection, shrugged and drank it. The taste was indescribable, but only a few moments later my headache and queasiness was gone.

“Wow, that’s so much better, thanks.” After squirming a bit, Lienru presented the food. Which I ate eagerly now that my appetite was back. “We figured we owed you this much at least, Great One. We caused you to go a bit wild last night, after all.” she explained at length. “So I have been informed, though personally, I remember nothing.” I replied as I continued to eat. “Better that way, Great One, trust me.” Lienru seemed… embarrassed, joy. “I will take your word for it.” The meal continued in silence and as Lienru picked up the empty cup and plate she bowed lightly.

“If you create more rooms containing foodstuffs, I can prepare more food for you. I have also experimented with cooking eggs.” She offered, clearly eager to try her hands at new ingredients. “If the points permit.” she nodded eagerly and left. Judging by her eager expression, there would be many cracked eggs by the time this day was over.