Magnus was still asleep, well if he wanted to be lazy Valens was just going to carry on with the dungeon without him. The core had completed four entire floors since the drake had passed out and he was now just starting to build floor seven. The design of these floors was relatively simple and similar to the first floors but Valens had worked hard on them and now he didn’t have anyone to show them off to.

Floor three had ended up as a grassy area with very high ceilings and no bushes, as expected it was a great area for the hawks but that was about it. The core’s other creatures had a little harder of a time on that floor so he had decided to make a few changes for the fourth. It still had high ceilings for the hawks but it also had tall grasses and several bushes to let the core’s earthbound creatures have places to safely take refuge.

Valens looked over fondly as the now tier two monster lizard boss tore goblin almost completely in half. She had been going on quite the goblin killing spree after evolving to tier two, Valens thought it was adorable. After her evolution the monster lizard was now the largest creature in the dungeon and able to look a full-grown goblin in the eyes. The core might have decided to add goblins to his ecosystem, without telling Magnus, the drake would find out eventually but things had turned out fine. He had only had to cull the goblin population a few times.

Reflecting on past events as another goblin had its head ripped off the core was thankful that his first boss had turned into such a proficient fighter. Valens had been a little uncertain at first but at this point, there was nothing in the dungeon that could face his lizard head-on and live, Magnus didn’t count. It was a good thing she had turned out so well without her the dungeon might very well be overrun with goblins by now.

Another deer stumbled its way into the dungeon limping its way down into the first floor, it was a rather common invader recently. It wasn’t particularly dangerous but Valens hoped that they would make a good prey animal for his minions, especially the voracious goblins. It was unusual for creatures to be injured before entering the dungeon, but Valens wasn’t going to complain, it just made his job easier.

Watching patiently the deer eventually succumbed on the second floor as its injuries and a particularly aggressive fox finally finished it off. He could have killed the invader on the first floor if he had rallied all of his minions and swarmed it but he was trying to take more of a hands-off approach. Now that he didn’t need to kill something as soon as possible Valens had found it better to just allow the natural predators on his floors to take out any invaders. It was a lot easier for him as he didn’t need to direct his creatures anymore, and it allowed his bolder minions to gain a lot of experience.

Invaders naturally gave more experience than killing other members of the dungeon for some reason. Speaking of experience, after it had evolved his favorite lizard had stopped gaining any from its kills. Maybe because she was now a tier two creature and she was killing tier ones? Glancing over at the drake peacefully sleeping using his book as a pillow, he could ask Magnus the drake would probably know the answer. It was fine he would ask when Magnus woke up on his own, he could handle things on his own. Valens also needed to come up with a name for the lizard boss, that could wait too.

Valens sighed as he reviewed the deer template, it was close to completion very close but it was still not quite finished. He would eventually get the template he knew but it would have been nice to have something to properly feed the goblins, some of them were starting to chew on rocks. One inescapable fact that he had noticed about goblins is they were extraordinarily stupid. Most animals have some notion of common sense, like fleeing from a predator which the goblins completely ignored.

Another goblin charged right at the lizard boss who proceeded to spin and launch the unfortunate creature across the floor with a well-placed tail hit. Magnus had said that goblins would be irredeemably stupid but Valens had assumed that he was exaggerating but it appeared like he was telling the truth. Another goblin charged forward and whacked the lizard boss on the head with a large tree branch which only served to annoy the tier two monster lizard. Valens winced in sympathy as the poor goblin’s head was introduced to a large toothy maw.

One redeeming aspect of goblins that Valens had noticed was they were quite a bit stronger than their size would imply. Based on the scattered memories that he had gotten from Magnus, goblins were about the size of a human child, but their strength seemed to be on par with a low-level adult human. Valens was rather impressed by the relative strength of the goblins, although it wasn’t doing them much good against the lizard boss. At least there were goblins on other floors; it looked like all the ones on the seventh floor were goners. Another goblin charged towards its brutal death and Valens reflected that he rather liked goblins, they made for good entertainment.

Valens felt something enter his dungeon and checked in on the first floor hoping for another deer he was so close to finishing that template. Instead, a grey muzzle poked through the entrance of the dungeon sniffing experimentally, a wolf maybe it had been chasing that deer from earlier. He watched expectantly as the wolf eased its way completely into the dungeon and continued to snuffle at the ground. Wolves would make a great addition to his dungeon if he could get the pattern, they would make a fantastic counterbalance to the goblins to free up his boss. The invader halted its investigation of the entrance satisfied, standing straight it howled at the rocky ceiling of the dungeon.

More wolves began to scamper through the entrance and Valens took deep breaths trying to calm himself. I can handle this myself. It's just a few wolves I got this, a massive wolf stepped into the dungeon almost twice as large as the rest of the pack. You know what I don’t got this. Magnus!

What is it Valens? The drake woke a little groggily, yawning and stretching.

I think I might need a little help, I seem to have a bit of a wolf problem. There were now a good three dozen wolves on the first floor.

It looks like it’ll be fine. Good job keeping the goblins under control, I wish you had let me know about it first though.

It's your fault for always sleeping. Valens muttered very quietly, turning his attention back to the wolves as they found the stairs leading down to the second floor. How can you even tell anything about the wolves and goblins by the way? Now that drake was awake the core was feeling a lot calmer.

Didn’t I tell you? I guess not. Well, you know how you can look through my or any boss’s eyes and basically borrow our sense. We can do the same thing: look through the link in the opposite direction to view stuff through your dungeon aura.

That concerned Valens for a little bit but then he remembered he couldn’t take control of the bodies of his minions through the link, so they wouldn’t be able to do the same to him, right? How should I handle these wolves? Can you just blast them for me? Also just to be sure you can’t take over my mind through the link correct?

To start with I am not going to just whisk away any problem that inconveniences you, but I will help if you’re going to die. It would also be a complete waste for me to kill the wolves, they’re lower tier than me so I wouldn’t get any experience from it but they do quite a lot for your monsters, and no, no mind-controlling.

It was nice to have some confirmation on why his lizard boss wasn’t gaining any experience from killing tier ones, but Valens was still a little uncertain about taking on so many wolves himself. They’re going to kill so many of my monsters though, it’ll take me forever to respawn them all.

Magnus snorted and settled back. You won’t have to recreate any of them, just let the populations grow back to their former sizes, this is another benefit of having an ecosystem. Just sit back and watch the show Valens, you should have more faith in your creatures. Good work with the lizard boss by the way it's coming along nicely.

She, and I need to name her soon. Valens commented distractedly as the wolves raced through the second floor. The wolves were roaming across the second floor practically with impunity, nothing was a threat to them yet, aside from a few scratches from the foxes. The goblins usually migrated towards the lower floors so there weren't any of them so high in the dungeon.

Why are creatures attracted to me again Magnus? I feel like you might have mentioned it before but maybe not. It had been a few hours and the wolves looked like they were stopping on floor four which disappointed Valens greatly as the goblins were just one floor away. The hawks on the later floors were doing some occasional damage and two wolves had even died from lucky strikes to the eyes.

It's because of the ambient mana you put out. Higher ambient mana allows for easier leveling, recovery, and, most importantly for most monsters, growth. Higher tier monsters need to have high enough mana concentration in their environment for their young to survive. It's not an issue for grown creatures but younglings usually die if there’s not enough mana to support their early development in the surrounding area. The drake yawned carelessly, seeming to consider taking a short nap as the wolf pack started to settle down to sleep.

So basically all creatures have the instinct to search out and control areas with high mana concentration. Valens thought it made sense, as he got stronger the ambient mana he produced would spread further and be more attractive to stronger creatures due to its increasing concentration.

That's about right. The drake yawned widely but instead of going back to sleep, he took out his black book flipping through pages and muttering about mana types. Both of them settled down to wait but things would not be so calm for the wolves throughout the night. Valens gathered up most of the hawks on the floor and turned them loose on the wolves.

The hawks took turns harassing the wolf sentries throughout the night making a huge racket and even managing to ambush a few of the sleeping wolves as well. It was too bad they had been smart enough to sleep inside one of the larger bushes on the floor. Magnus might not have approved but what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him and besides, it's not like Valens was puppeteering his minions to fight he was just pointing them in the direction of the enemy.

The wolves didn’t get much rest with Valens’ constant harassment but they did seem more recovered after the five hours the alpha let them rest. They continued exploring the rest of the fourth floor and picking off the occasional mouse for breakfast. Hey Magnus what the deal with the alpha. The largest wolf was far stronger and faster than any other wolf by a large margin.

Didn’t you notice, it's tier two. The drake blandly stated while carefully folding his book closed.

You don’t think that would have been important to mention earlier. Valens was a little miffed the only creature he had that was tier two was his boss.

It’ll be fine. There’s not a massive difference in tiers at least not when they’re this low.

Valens huffed in annoyance but decided to let the point drop and turn his attention back to the invaders who had just found the entrance to the fifth floor. It was time to see how well they fared against the goblins.