There is something to be said for surprises, both good and bad. For example, Inlas’ little minions entered the above-ground Maze expecting an easy road to my dungeon. Too bad for them what awaited them was the better part of three hours’ worth of slogging ankle deep in sticky mud thanks to the storm that was still raging outside. If I still had my physical form, I would have likely had a hard time seeing or hearing anything at all.

On the flip side, what awaited them when they finally reached my dungeon was another surprise, this one in the form of a barrier barring entry for the intruders. No surprise there. There were almost 60 of them, and they honestly expected me to just let them in? Get real, no more War Mode fellas. So you have to divide into smaller groups if you want to get in here. It took a bit of trial and error on their end. But finally, they realized that the only way the barrier would drop was if a party of four people approached. With the rest so far behind they would never make it in time, even with haste active. Damn straight, I would probably pick up the Mastery upgrade to allow a party of six in later on. For now, they would have to deal with only getting four.

A Tank, a Healer and two Damage dealers, they were about the same level Rael and his party had been during their first visit. But with only a third of Rael’s party, they posed a significantly less threat. Besides, it’s not like I had been idle in the hours it took them to get through the outside maze. I had actually been a busy little core and had prepared accordingly.

First, I had burned 20 of my 21 TP to unlock the Sludge Pit(7TP), Shadowed Alcove(6TP), and a 7TP Enhancement to my teleport traps. The upgrade gave it a Targeted AoE so it would take an entire party in one fell swoop to a specific location of my choosing if it went off. It had been with quite a bit of glee that I had, considering the party size limitation, pointed all the teleport traps to the same location. I felt a bit bad for dumping them there. But then they were the ones breaking into my home. It would decidedly be a nasty surprise for them, that was for sure.

I also spent 20 EP to unlock two of the intermediate creatures for the first floor that I now had support buildings for. Then spent a bit of time renovating parts of the maze to have dead end rooms for the support. In the East was the Support Room for the Shadows, a surprisingly dangerous ambush predator that could be added into my maze because it had an active biome Influence. Though this one just required any influence, rather than a Depth Influence specifically. Meaning the Shadow was not likely to migrate, or so I hoped. I was running out of creatures to place short of Advanced at this point and those were, for obvious reasons, pretty damn expensive.

I gave the stats of the Shadow another once over before I summoned a few.

Monster: Shadow

Genus: Undead, Shade

Biome: Any Influenced

Unlock cost: 8 EP

HP: 130 MP: 100

Attack: 60, Defense: 140

Magic Attack: 60, Magic Defense: 80

Strength: 6, Dexterity: 14, Endurance: 13

Intelligence: 6, Wisdom: 10, Charisma: 8

Upkeep: 5, If you have Shadowed Alcove, 1

Skills: Physical Resistance LvMAX(Racial), Elemental Resistance LvMAX(Racial), Corrosion Resistance LvMAX(Racial), Holy Weakness LvMAX(Racial), Undead Immunities(Racial), Living Shadow(Racial), Master Ambusher(Racial), Wall Walk(Racial), Stealth LvMAX(Racial), Strength Eater(Racial), Spawn Shadows(Racial Unique), Sense Life(Racial)

Not the most dangerous intermediate creature out there. But it would certainly be a pretty nasty piece of work to deal with for a small party, thanks in no small part due to its maxed out resistance skills. It would cut all damage it took in half from what it was resistant to. And thanks to “Living Shadow” it was also impervious to unholy and dark attribute attacks and most restraining effects. The thing that made it dangerous in a fight was not its physical damage, however. In fact, it had little in the way of ability to deal any damage at all since “Living Shadow” also cut all damage it would deal by 90%. This would have been crippling if it weren’t for “Strength Eater” and “Spawn Shadows”.

Strength Eater would sap the strength of those the shadows hit permanently. And if they dropped to 0 strength… instant death. This would be followed by reanimation as a new shadow within twenty-four hours. It was not a harmless monster by any stretch. Most parties could handle them pretty easily because of their weakness to holy and light-based magics. Thanks to its “Holy Weakness” and “Living Shadow” conferring automatic “Light Weakness LvMAX” as part of its package deal, respectively. Still, even if they survived that they would be weakened until someone or something could magically restore their lost strength. Which would make it all the worse for them, considering the monster I planned to combine them with.

I had summoned about a dozen Shadows to replace some of my troops; It hurt my income to take a bite out of it that high. But these guys had some pretty high respawn timers so if they died I would need more. Not to mention this floor had become quite expansive, so a dozen would really not be able to cover all of it. Nor did they have Labyrinth sense. Though they didn’t really need that since they could use the Kobold’s Tunnels since they were literal shadows able to go flat onto the ground.

By this point the first party of four had entered. A Priest, a Rogue, a warrior of some kind. Probably a Shield Knight Class Variant, if his plate mail and Tower Shield was any indication. And a mage of some kind that I could not identify. Other than it was likely not a sorcerer, given the huge tome he was lugging around. I had my other unlock ready to go, but I had… Plans for this one summon. Even with the support room, their upkeep had only gone from 5 to 3, but that didn’t matter. These little guys would clean up anything in their way, literally.

I let them wander into the main Maze area before I summoned my newest monster, literally on top of their casters. The thing was…. Crystal clear, so clear that I could hardly see it. Heck if it wasn’t for the *SKLOP* sound as it engulfed the priest and mage I wouldn’t have been able to tell that it was there. And it also took the Warrior and Rogue a second to realize what had happened. They watched as it appeared that their friends had frozen in mid-step. The rogue walked closer and slowly reached out his hand; It hit a soft flat surface, then slowly sank inside. Then the rogue tried to retract his hand and found it stuck. Then whatever he had touched started to reel the rouge in and move closer to the Knight as well. Seriously this Rogue had to be new, no adventurer with even a slight bit of experience would move closer to a Gelatinous Cube.

Unfortunately for this quartet, they had lost all ability to deal any damage to the thing because it was just immune to physical damage. It was also in the process of digesting the Priest and Mage alive; It was meant to be able to engulf things. So swords and daggers and other non-magical weapons could cut it, but those cuts would just instantly heal again, leaving no discernible damage at all. Even if the Rogue was a variant that used poisons or acids it would do nothing here as the Cube was immune to both since it was an Ooze. That being said, the cube had next to no magical defenses at all. So if it was detected, mages would easily be able to kill it. Too bad the only mage this group was probably close to, if not already dead…

As I watched the Cube take care of the rogue and move towards the Knight, I noticed that I didn’t feel pity for them anymore; It was somewhat disturbing to realize, probably because my Synchronization had gone up so fast. Or maybe I was suffering from trauma from when Rael almost conquered me. Either way I felt nothing as the Knight turned, fled and shortly after stepped on a Magical Mine. He was blown to pieces since he lacked the Rogues class ability that lowered damage from traps. Once the cube passed the area around the trap did not show any sign of the knight’s passing. As the cube fit perfectly in the hallway, being literally a 5x5x5 meter cube.

After seeing that horribly effective display, I summoned a few more. My E/D was now down from 40 prior to summoning the shadows, to 16 after summoning the 4th cube, this sucked. Luckily I had the Masteries needed to unlock the Chrysalis Copse, so I could extend the Starsilver Crag and Geode Cavern. Sure the Copse had its own upkeep cost, probably to feed the cocooned Crawlers. But it was only 5e/d, and once I had more Pharos Wings, that was an upkeep I could easily afford. Especially now that I had gotten more income from these four adventurers.

Not much from each. Only 4 points in all categories for all of them and 40 essence total. I could inspect the status of the Cube later. As the barrier had faded now that the party was dead. And the next round of intruders had already made their way inside.

It was an utter disaster for them, not because of the cube or the shadows. Not at all. They made short work of them, so they clearly had some experience, but they lacked a Rogue to scout for traps. Why in the world they would not have a rogue was beyond me. But as it was, they triggered one of my Teleport Traps.

One moment they were in my Maze, bravely trekking forwards, the next, they were in a far more… sinister environment. Hazalaar would undoubtedly enjoy his new playthings if he found them before the Rats, Worms or Black Oozes did. At least until they expired at any rate, cruel? Yes, undoubtedly, effective? Undeniable. Did I feel bad for doing it considering they might be brainwashed? Yes, but I simply did not have the luxury to take them all prisoner and try to sort out who was brainwashed and who was just a fanatic. I lacked the facilities needed to hold prisoners, for one. And if they escaped, they could wreak untold havoc since they would then be intruding in vast numbers far inside my own defenses. I simply could not take that risk. As much as it pained me to do so, I had to draw the line somewhere and this was it.

I did idly note that while it pained me to see them die in such utterly pointless fashion for something that might not be their own will. There was no longer any lasting guilt at all. Clearly the work of the Synchronization to help me cope with the fact that I was probably going to commit a massacre before the day was over.

As I was contemplating this, however, a message popped up from the dungeon itself. . So that’s how it was. If they were Inlas’ loyal little lap dogs, they would be saved from death by her and… I quickly checked my stats. Yep, I gained hardly anything when they did. The entire group should have been dead, but all I got from it was 1 essence and 1 point in all unlock categories. That was for the lot of them, and even that was likely just a consolation prize given by Mother to ensure I wouldn’t go in the red by repeated assault.

On the upside, that would help me figure out who was brainwashed and who was loyal. Not that it helped my conscious any to have to kill them to find out. It was unfortunate, but I had no choice but to accept that I would only be killing the brainwashed pawns and deal with the emotional fallout if it ever arrived. With the defenses taken care of, I returned to the party in a much more dour mood, even as the next batch of fodder was let into the dungeon. This was going to be a long day indeed by the looks of things.

Once I returned I informed the others of what had transpired and the overall mood dropped noticeably. Even as Erem made a short prayer to a god named Melenar, for the safe passage of their souls to the afterlife. Probably some sort of god of Death.

Rather than continuing the festivities, the party slowly broke up. The Kobolds started to clean up, with help from Sango, Randel, Garana, Surin, Tarad, Dally and Mint. Meanwhile, Rael, Rorik, Sybil, Lahman, Erem, Pavol and Oran started to set up a long-term camp in the entrance tunnel to the forest. There they would be out of the constant spore rain the forest itself had going. But it was sheltered enough that it could not be seen from the outside of the tunnel. And with the illusory wall, it was not like they would be a primary target. This would also allow them to shield the Kobolds and give them time to escape if worse came to worst.

While this had gone on 2 more parties had been warped out by Inlas blessing and another had perished. This group had forced their way all the way inside Unguul’s room. But once inside they got an all too good look at the Abyssal Eye, much to my surprise the entire party had actually been left petrified. Which technically meant they were still alive, I had the Striders carefully transport the petrified quartet to the adventurer camp. So they could cure them once we had somewhere secure to keep them. I should probably see if I could get the Duergar to build a prison or a holding cell or something.

That being said, I had one important thing left to do before I could rest for the night. I moved to the Geode cavern and created a wide slanting passage leading away from it and the Crag. Then I spent the 10 Masteries I needed to unlock the Chrysalis Copse. It was harsh to give up half my remaining Masteries. I had gotten full payout for the petrified team and the “Consolation Prize” for the two that were warped out. This had left me with exactly 20 Masteries prior to unlocking the Copse.

After some deliberation I placed the Copse and it was… beautiful. Giant stone trees with white crystalline leaves that were dimly glowing like moonlight, filled most of the Copse with a pale otherworldly light. The trees themselves seemed to actually grow from the ground and some of them even had gem-like seeds hanging from their huge, by my standards, branches. Seriously, some branches were so massive I could have easily slept on some of them as if they were a king-sized bed.

Thank you, I already figured as much now how much essence is HOLY, double. Each expansion would cost double the cost of the previous with the first being double the base cost of the rooms. OK, I could see where that was going. It was to make it so prohibitively expensive to expand the crag and cavern after a while. It would force you to stop placing more expansions and focus on other things. It made sense. If I could give myself infinite Essence income, I would have. As it was, that was not workable. Both the Cavern and Crag were not that expensive to begin with. But the expansions would quickly grow beyond my ability to keep up. This expansion alone would cost 120 Essence total, 80 for the Crag and 40 for the Cavern, ugh. I could buy a bunch of expansions for both. But I honestly had no idea when Inlas would decide that enough was enough and just send in that summoner from before. On the other hand, I didn’t have enough TP to unlock many new traps. And the Barghest’s fiendish resilience would let it shrug off most of what my current traps could throw at it. Ugh, this was gonna get expensive. I bought two expansions for each, setting me back 360 essence. I could have bought another set, but if I did, I could not afford any Pharos Wings after, meaning it would be pointless. Well, at least I had literally tripled the number of Pharos Wings I could now have a grand total of 21 of them; The Crag had now become truly massive too, its reach would go far beyond the confines of my above ground limitation. I was honestly surprised it didn’t intersect with any natural cave systems along the way; The Cavern had expanded dramatically too, now being like a massive domed stadium full of gems and crystals. I knew that if the Guild Master ever saw this with his own eyes, he would most likely get a heart attack.

Hmm with that in mind let’s check how the Pharos Wings and Crawlers look without the curse, I hadn’t really checked that.

Monster: Amber Crawler(Rare)

Genus: Elemental

Biome: The Depths

HP: 250/250, MP: 60/60

Attack: 160, Defense: 220

Magic Attack:70, Magic Defense: 280

Strength: 16, Dexterity: 2, Endurance:25

Intelligence: 7, Wisdom: 6, Charisma: 8

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), Amber Skin(Racial)

That seemed way more on par with what I would have expected from what essentially was a giant caterpillar. Although it still had some pretty insane strength and endurance, given its diet and the fact that it was an earth elemental, that didn’t surprise me. What did surprise me was that it had an ability that had not been there and way more defense than its absolutely pitiful dexterity and slightly bad charisma would suggest. It did not take a genius to figure out the two were related. Now what about the Pharos Wing?

Monster: Pharos Wing(Evolution)

Genus: Elemental Insectoid

Biome: The Depths

HP: 210/210, MP: 180/180

Attack: 240, Defense: 380

Magic Attack: 160, Magic Defense: 390

Strength: 24, Dexterity: 18, Endurance: 21

Intelligence: 16, Wisdom: 18, Charisma: 19

Upkeep: -30, because of both support buildings and 5 Star Lillie’s, normal 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), Amber Skin(Racial), Innate Spellcaster(Special), Healing Mastery(Special)(Holy), Evocation Mastery(Special)(Fire and Holy), Illusion Mastery(Special)(All)

That was still pretty damn impressive. Sure it was not up in the 1000s, still couldn’t believe I had actually bought into that one. Curses could do some horrible stuff to you judgement, wait regular upkeep 25? Come to think of it, when I had placed the Lilies earlier Archives had said something similar. Something about the upkeep becoming -26 after the first one. That did not add up, unless?

.

Yet an even bigger reason to dislike Inlas, I suppose. At this point I am honestly pretty sure the only reason why Inlas didn’t just have the curse make the dungeons want to be tamed. Which I had no doubt she could have done by this point, was because that would be too damn obvious.

Well, it didn’t matter anymore. That was all in the past now. The Pharos Wings were still a great way to gain essence, and I did notice it also had the Amber Skin ability. Which, if my calculations were correct increased both defense types by 200 each, that was pretty damn solid. Especially for the Pharos Wings, who had less health, but more of everything else in spades to make up for it. The question now was how much of my remaining Essence did I burn to summon more Pharos Wings. I didn’t bother with crawlers since they would slowly refill from the Copse anyhow, but how many to put down?

In the end I spent 250 essence to get 5 more Pharos wings. Another 150 e/d, but now I was down to only 299 Essence. I still had another Essence Orb I could use, but I figured it was better to save that for an emergency. As much as I would like to place more Pharos Wings it would be better to let them just naturally evolve. Satisfied with my work, I checked my Status.

Dungeon Name: Labyrinthia

Dungeon Biomes: Magical Maze, The Depths, Deep Labyrinth

Dungeon Level: 4, DEXP: 33/150

Depth: 3/3, Rooms: 50

Resources: Essence: 299/2400, EP: 48, TP: 7 M: 0, E/D: 163

Avatar Attributes

Avatar Race: Umbral Sage Sphinx (Tier 2 Legendary Unique Variant)

Avatar Gender: Female

Avatar Level: 2, EXP: 254/450

HP: 160/160, MP: 200/200

Attack: 160, Defense: 160

Magic Attack: 200 Magic Defense: 200

Strength: 16(ATK), Dexterity: 16(Def), Endurance: 16(HP)

Intelligence: 20(MATK), Wisdom: 20(MP), Charisma: 20(MDEF)

Penumbra 79% > 21% Inlas, Divinity: 3%

Synchronization: 60%, Core Type: Advanced Cores Eaten: 4

Titles: “Evolved one” “Vengeance Seeker”

Skills: Penumbral Psionics(Racial), Cleaving Swipe LvMAX(Racial), Roar LvMAX(Racial), Penumbral Archives(Umbral Unique), Dungeon Siege Mistress(Master Compound), Blessing of Penumbra(Mythical Umbral Blessing) Umbral Knowledge Lv1(Umbral), Damage Resistance Lv2, Mud Golem Status Immunities(Core), Fire Resistance Lv2(Core), Deception Lv4(Core), Ancient Legacy(Evolution), “Receive Linked Senses”(Gift), Innate Caster(Core), Illusionist(Core), Divination(Core), Sphinx Curse(Unique Core), Challenge(Core)(Riddles).

Hmm, not bad, not bad at all. I was far better off than I would have expected, given how young my dungeon was now that I could actually see and think clearly about the situation. Satisfied I returned to the camp and materialized once more, I had intended to finish the food I had left half-eaten, but it had been cleaned up. Ah well, a bigger surprise was that Indella was waiting for me. I would have thought she would have found a nice comfy spot to curl up for some sleep by now. Even the attacks had stopped once the sun had set. And getting the expansions set up and all that jazz had taken so long it was now getting closer to midnight. Yet here she was, waiting for me.

Then again, I should not have been surprised I could feel her even when I was popping around the Dungeon in my incorporeal state. It was like feeling it through a layer of wool, but still. *I don’t like it when you disperse your body, it feels… weird.* I ruffled her head gently. “Sorry about that, couldn’t sleep because of it?” I asked. *I don’t want to sleep alone here.* She replied. “What about your friends?” I nodded towards Rorik and the rest. *I don’t mind sleeping with them, but…* I understood her reasoning. Being too far apart was uncomfortable due to the bond. I had noticed it tugging at me even as I ran off to lure away our pursuers. And since I slept in the Core Room…

I laid down. “I get it, hop on, I will take us both to the Core Room. Just make sure to watch your head. There are some cramped spaces in places, especially in the tunnels on the floor below.” Indella didn’t need to be asked twice, and I swooped into the air and started to fly towards the Hive. “Remind me to introduce you to all the dungeon inhabitants tomorrow. Since Babel is a passive skill it should work for you as well and thus allow you to understand them.” Indella hugged me a bit closer. *Sounds nice, I will look forward to it.* She sounded sleepy.

By the time I arrived in the core room, Indella had fallen asleep on my back. Not that surprising. It had been an almost criminally early morning and with all that running around on top of the flight from Caelyn. I was not surprised she was tired. As I flew through the third floors’ Deep Labyrinth, I spotted Hazalaar as he walked around. He gave me a respectful nod and just ignored Indella sleeping on my back. Good, that meant that Hazalaar saw her as part of my Dungeon. The last thing I needed was for Indella to die because of Hazalaar’s Terror. With that uplifting discovery, I landed in the core room and laid down for my own well-deserved rest. It had been a long day indeed.