Magnus was asleep again, the drake had declared he was getting a good rest this time instead of just taking a nap, which was a little concerning for the core. If a nap lasted for days how long would the drake be out if he was taking an actual rest? It had already been almost two weeks and the oversized lizard hadn’t even stirred once.

On the bright side, the eleventh floor was getting close to completion, it had taken forever to expand the floor, it was a lot larger than the previous ten floors, almost by a factor of three. The eleventh floor was around eight square miles and he still wasn’t finished with expanding the floor. The mana density on the newest floor was also a good deal higher than the previous ten floors, and the mana density was already showing benefits. The tier one creatures there were getting stronger and evolving quickly and it had almost gotten to the point that he was comfortable sending out Sora to hunt again.

There was a rather large population of monster lizards as he had the template for those from the start, there was also a rising number of greater wolves and hobgoblins. Those tier twos were joined by a smattering of greater foxes, monster snakes, and greater hawks but those were a little unusual. It was fascinating for the core to observe the differences between the tier one ecosystem he had established in the first ten floors and the developing tier two ecosystem on the eleventh.

For starters, the prey animals that the tier one ecosystem relied so heavily on were almost nonexistent in the tier two ecosystem. The reason for this was pretty straightforward once he thought about it, the prey animals never really had a chance to evolve at all. To evolve they would need to level, and to level, they would need to kill stuff, which is against their instincts as prey animals. This resulted in the tier two ecosystem not really having any prey animals, and instead, the predators hunted each other.

This led to an interesting dynamic, on the previous floors the wolves and goblins are the undisputed apex predators but on the eleventh-floor things weren't quite the same. The hobgoblins were as large as a full-grown man and the great wolves were about level with their chest, but evolution was starting to let the other species close the gap. The evolutions to the snakes, hawks, and foxes let them reliably take down a greater wolf or hobgoblin if they caught one by surprise, the other species had grown larger, the hawks faster, the snake’s venom more potent, and the foxes more cunning.

The constant battle for survival was quite the spectacle and it was almost time to let his oldest boss out to have some fun. The poor girl was trying to get some sleep to escape her boredom and failing miserably. The pixie boss had also been progressing well, but it had grown slightly slower than Sora as Valens wanted to allow some of its tier-one creatures to evolve and move down to the eleventh floor. Regardless, the pixie had evolved into a fairy not long ago, and Valens had celebrated by giving his boss a name, Aspen. It might not be the best or most original names but Valens was quite pleased to have come up with himself without any scaley help.

The young fairy now had grown from a ball of light with wings to a diminutive glowing person, the fairy was also just a ball of sentient mana but it looked female now that Aspen had an actual body. Combat wise the fairy was still very similar to her pixie combat, her control might be better and her spells stronger but the spells were still the same cutting blades of water as before. Aspen was going to need to start hunting on the eleventh floor as well eventually, she wouldn’t be able to evolve again quite yet like Sora but the fairy level up to the brink of evolution.

Concerningly there were absolutely no intruders entering the dungeon, absolutely none for over two weeks. It was ridiculous, it wasn't a crippling blow because of his ecosystem but still, Valens was quite concerned with what was going on with his dungeon. If Magnus had been awake he might have asked him to go check, but the drake was sleeping so deeply that the core couldn't wake him even when he tried. Not like he could send Sora out to check things out but, her idea of problem-solving was very limited and if the problem couldn’t be eaten then she wasn’t going to be much help.

To take his mind off things Valens watched a brief struggle between a hobgoblin and a greater wolf. The fight was short but vicious with the hobgoblin getting the better of the lone wolf, Valens chucked in amusement as talons punched through the weakened hobgoblin’s eyes. Experience flowed into the core and Valens felt a lot better, he didn't really need invaders anymore to grow but it would be nice to get some new templates.

Silas closed his eyes dozing peacefully against a tree, the sun was warm and it was just the right temperature out for a nap, not too cold and not too hot. It was so nice to get some relaxation in, the caravan had just arrived from Corinth yesterday and he knew that somebody was going to make him do something. A dark shadow fell across his face and Silas grumbled as his perfect temperature dropped just enough to no longer be perfect.

Opening his eyes he glared up at Kira, his erstwhile ‘assistant' was tapping her foot on the ground impatiently, and for some reason, Silas felt like a little child again caught doing something naughty. He sighed deeply at the trials of life. “Yes Kira, what is it?”

“How irresponsible can you be Silas? It's already been a day and you’re still doing nothing.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about Kira.” What did she expect him to do, take charge, and run the expedition? It's like she didn’t know him at all there was no way he was going to do that, it sounded like way too much work.

“Didn’t you get the letter from guild master Gabriel?” Kira was looking more than a little annoyed now, Silas could practically see steam coming out of her ears.

“Oh this letter, I might have seen it. I just haven’t gotten around to reading it just yet.” Silas took a slightly crumpled piece of paper out of his robes, he had thought about reading it sooner but he had more important things to do, like napping.

Silas’ assistant snatched the letter out of his hand almost at once and opened it right in front of him. That was rather rude, it was his letter after all. Kira began reading the thing out loud and Silas was quickly dismayed to find that Gabriel was going senile in his old age. Otherwise, why would his good friend put him in charge of the entire dungeon expedition, there had to be someone more qualified right? He was also blatantly threatened with being made guild master in Corinth if he didn’t go along with a harebrained scheme, and as much as he disliked the idea of more work he really, really didn’t want to deal with the stuff Gabriel put up with daily.

Groaning Silas lay back on the ground savoring his last few moments of relaxation before he got up. Kira loomed over him, smiling viciously. “You’ll be happy to know that I have been keeping everything running in your absence, but you need to go give a speech to the delving party that's heading out in the morning. I’ve even written your speech for you, you're welcome.”

Speeches, great, just great. Pushing himself slowly to his feet, and glaring at his entirely too pleased assistant Silas limped off to give his speech feeling quite miserable. Why did this dungeon have to show up here of all places?

This was so exciting, Arthur was doing his very best not to start bouncing up and down with anticipation. They were going to meet a leader in the famed Mage guild, an actual High Magus no less, a true tier five classer.

“The dungeon will bring danger and trials, but also rewards and opportunity.”

Oh, the speech was starting, Arthur hurriedly started paying attention. He was only the son of a woodsman but the start of the speech had seemed a little off to him, but what did he know about speeches? His father always told him that he tended to think too much, well he used to at least. Burning houses, screaming voices, the coppering tang of blood, so much fire. Arthur shook his head trying to banish the memory, he was never going to feel that helpless again he would make sure of it.

“You will be led by the veteran adventurer Blood Fang? Are serious pretensions much, well moving on.”

It was sad that a tier-three adventurer could be considered a veteran of the society but that's just how things were. The adventurer’s society wasn’t like the Mage guild, adventurers were more glorified mercenaries with little to no training as opposed to the well-respected mages of the guild. The Mage guild was a force to be reckoned with throughout the kingdoms, they were centers of knowledge, learning and wisdom, and most importantly training which Arthur was in rather desperate need of.

“...subjugated a rampaging orc and is a tier-three knight, he will be leading his party which consists of half a dozen brave squires, along with the rest of you brave recruits.”

He really should be paying more attention. This might be important, it's just that the speech was being delivered in such a flat and boring tone. Like the speaker would rather be anywhere else besides here giving the speech, Arthur could sympathize with the robed and bearded high magus, he didn’t really like public speaking either.

“...completely unknown, be prepared to face any obstacle…”

It was disappointing that their higher tier leaders were all chi users, it wasn’t exactly unusual but it was still frustrating. He would have liked to have had some advice from another commoner mage, he had tried asking a noble mage once and he had been limping for weeks, it was incredibly difficult to figure out anything with mana without a teacher. He might try asking for help from someone in the mage guild after their dungeon dive, which was so exciting. Arthur had never been in a dungeon before, but even out in his remote village, he had heard the stories of vast caves filled with treasure and monsters.

“With that good luck adventurers. Welcome adventurers I commend your bravery to take on…”

The speaker stopped scratching his pure white hair and then tossed a few cards over his shoulder with a shrug. There were a few chuckles from behind him, but the high magus’ attendant was just shaking her head. Arthur had thought there was something wrong with the speech when it had started.

“Well anyway, that’s enough of that down to business. Your job is to lay eyes on the dungeon core and then report back on the dangers and treasures of the dungeon, don’t even think about touching the core unless you want to all die. Anyone who makes it back alive will be rewarded handsomely and receive a special recommendation from the guild.”

Arthur straightened, that was what he was after, the money would be nice but what he needed was the recommendation. With it he might be able to get himself into one of the better mercenary bands, if he chose carefully he might even find a proper teacher. It could even help him when he applied to the guild, but he was still only a tier-one apprentice, which was still a long way off from a tier-three mage.

“Good luck you lot and try not to all die.”

With that the high magus strode away followed by the rest of the mage guild party, the higher tier adventurers quickly took over and organized the recruits to prepare for the dungeon dive. Arthur was the only mana user in the entire party and there were more than three dozen of them in total, that was a little sad but it was what it was. With a deep breath, Arthur steadied himself as the appraisal party moved out.