Veraform thought long and hard about what he wanted. Doubled size wouldn’t make too much sense in a place this small, though he assumed it would grant increased defenses and attack power. Camouflage would do very little once a fight started. Before a fight it may not matter either. The rooms were relatively small and Mechamputax was big. Fire magic had a similar problem. The rooms were small so he’d be hitting allies. Fire also wasn’t a very broad category so once someone countered it that was all there was to it. That left ‘decoy body’ and ‘abyssal magic’.

Decoy body was risky since that could mean any number of things but abyssal magic sounded promising. Whether it was offensive, defensive or utility he felt like he could use it. It would also be fitting considering what Mechamputax was.

This was it. His final decision was abyssal magic and decoy body. As he made the confirmation in his head there were changes. Mechamputax began emanating a black smoke from within his flesh sack. The smoke rose and danced before settling and coalescing into a second identical Mechamputax. Additionally skeletons that hadn’t been there began pushing their way out of the walls in Mechamputax’s chamber. They all had various breaks and cracks in their bones but none of them matched the layout of Mechamputax, and none had the flesh wrapping.

Candles on tall candlesticks emerged from the ground and lit themselves, the fire though, was black and purple. The room had a dim glow to it and both Mechamputax and his doppleganger were exuding a light haze. The sight was eerie. Mechamputax cocked its head as it looked at the second body. It stood entirely motionless until suddenly Mechamputax froze and the body moved. No that wasn’t right, the moving one was still mechamputax, but how? Had they switched places or had Mechamputaxs soul jumped to the other body? The creature continued leaping between bodies and moving them alternatingly. The end result was a set of jagged movements where only the rotating hand bones move fluidly.

This was promising. It was as useful as Veraform could have reasonably hoped it would be. “Mechamputax,” Veraform resounded. “Show me what magic you’ve gained from this transformation.”

“Maagiiiiic” The monstracity moaned. It set it’s hand against the wall and a small section turned red and then became a hole a little larger than a human head. Mechamputax suddenly and violently appeared to be sucked through. As the portal closed another appeared in the sigil room and Mechamputax emerged once again. “Maagiic,” this time shorter, as if he understood it.

Mechamputax looked around and started to speak again. “Rat” he intoned, most likely the shortest thing he would ever say. Veraform obliged and had a rat approach the horror. As the rat entered the room, the fiend swung its arm and released its loose bone projectiles. They landed loosely around the creature, who recoiled in fear before being sucked through a portal that opened between the bones.

This creature was smart. Veraform hadn’t even considered attempting to open a portal offensively, let alone using a projectile piece of him to open it. When the rat emerged from the portal it had blackened blisters covering it and squeaked in pain. It’s pain was too great to bother walking and so it just lay there, suffering. Eventually Mechamputax decided the rat served its purpose and put the thing out of its misery. He fired a blast of energy identical to the imps attack. When it connected with the rat there was a reaction with the blisters that caused them to violently burst. With the amount and size of the blisters on the creature it was essentially gone, even before it began being dissolved by the dungen.

Veraform was happy. He had made a good decision. Now he could work on expanding the second floor. He also had 15 KP to work with. Veraform decided he would create more rooms on floor 2 to be sure there was no more tomfoolery before he spent any KP. A good thing too, because as he attempted to make a new room on the second floor he got a notification.

Wow!

It looks like you’ve started working on your second floor!

Floors beyond the first are distinctly magical and so making more rooms down here is going to have a negative impact on your mana regen! Every five will cost one mana to maintain but you’ll always spend at least 2 mana on a floor.

Don’t worry though, there are benefits to having a second floor too!

You’ve unlocked floor specialization!

Floor specializations cost a lot of KP but automatically give you a bunch of cool rewards and unlock lots of new research options for you!

Veraform had a thought after reading the message. The messages hadn’t really changed much content wise, but they were no longer headed by the phrase ‘Level up’ and they've begun giving longer descriptions of things. Come to think of it, there was no place in Veraform’s menu where his level was listed. It was almost as if there were two seperate message writers and the second one was trying to maintain the tone of the first but had no idea what to do about the ‘level up’ portion of the message. It was an interesting thought but in the end Veraform put it in the back of his mind, seeing as he couldn’t actually pursue any answers.

He did open his menu to see if he had floor specialization options and he did.

Floor specializations:

Rat: 40 KP

Demon: 100 KP

Kobold: 50 KP

Those prices were steep. It looked like he would have to put off expanding the second floor while he worked on getting a specialization. The rat floor specialization cost as much KP as Veraform had gained in his entire life and it was the cheapest. This was going to take a long while to get. Or it would be instant if a couple adventurer’s arrive here looking for treasure.and met an untimely end. Veraform hoped for the latter since the flare had been sent out.

He did have 6 mana to spare at the moment, so he could at least gain some KP while he waited. He was about to decide to kill three rats for KP and summon three more before remembering that summoning rats was now free. He would be gaining kp at half the cost. He’d be able to afford a specialization in no time.

He got to work sacrificing his rats with mana infusion but very quickly ran into a problem. He gained no KP and lost 1 mana after the first rat. Was it because they were free rats? He tried summoning a rat without using the pantry and killed that one. Nothing. Rats had stopped giving him KP. Veraform had not only lost his easiest source of KP, but wasted 3 mana finding out that he lost it.

‘Surely’ he thought, ‘larger souls will still grant knowledge points.’ He turned his attention to the giant rats. They weren't particularly expensive but they were’t produced quickly. This would be a setback if it didn’t work. Veraform channeled on a giant rat and waited for it to die. Once it had he worriedly checked his menu and was relieved to see that he had gained 2 KP. It was 4 mana to summon a giant rat and 2 mana to infuse it. That was 6 mana for 2 KP and who knew when it would stop working and Veraform would have to turn to his imps.

It would cost over 60 mana to be able to afford the cheapest of floor specializations and Veraform didn’t even know what they actually did. This was bull- INTRUDER!

Veraform’s mind jumped. He wasn’t expecting visitors so soon after the flares went out. Then again how long had it been? Only an hour or two right? His memory faltered and he realized he didn't have time to think about it. The intruder was more important. This could be Veraform’s chance at gaining some KP or at the very least some mana.

The intruder however, wasn’t human. It was a small multicolored lizard with clear, iridescent wings. Its wings carried it lazily and its body was limp. It gently flapped its way through the dungeon. Whether by coincidence or some knowledge it went the direction of the mecaputax’s room and therefore the staircase. Rats would do little to the creature but the imps should be able to deal with it, Veraform concluded. Leo and Sett met the creature just outside of the sigil room. They blasted at it before even getting a good look at it.

The creature raised its lazily sagging head and waved its nubby arms in small circles and an orb formed around it, causing the blasts to reflect off and hit the wall. The critter continued bouncing as it passed into the next room. The imps followed and tried to hit the creature again, but the event transpired much the same, this time one of the blasts hitting a candle and knocking it over.

Mechamputax had one of his bodies in the center of the following room and the other sitting by the exit. The center one raised its long arm as the creature entered its chamber. This, veraform was sure, would be the end of the line for the miniature beast. As Mechamputax swung the creature raised its previously swaying tail and teleported to the other side of the demon.

Instantly the demon froze and his second body animated and lunged at the lizard. It began to raise its tail again but a rib jutted out of Mechamputax’s fleshy covering and shot towards the multicolored nuisance. Too slowly it attempted to raise its arms and was impaled. The rib carried it to the end of the room where it was pinned to the wall. Its blood, like its wings, was clear and featured every color of the rainbow. The thing let out a defeated whimper as Mechamputax approached. He bent down to get a closer look at the creature. It stared back, waiting for something, and more ribs jutted out and impaled the poor thing. It was dead.

Mechamputax began reclaiming his ribs and Veraform began dissolving the intruder. The imps were awestruck after watching Mechamputax fight for the first time. “Wow” Sett whispered to himself. “Do you think we can become that strong?” Sett asked Leo without taking his eyes away from the abomination gingerly replacing its ribs. “Master made the rats into better creatures, I don’t see why he couldn't make us stronger too” Leo looked at Sett and smiled. “And we have served him faithfully. We even managed to kill that boy. I’m sure that master will grant us strength when he can.”

Veraform took note of the imps conversation. He felt no obligation to make them stronger if he could simply conjure other stronger allies, but currently he couldn’t so he would humor them. Should he have the spare resources or the need, he would give them a gift for their loyalty and cooperation so far.

For now he had other matters to attend to. For one, what had he gained from the creature?

1 minor soul, 5 mana, 5 KP, and a new material, Fairy dragon. The creature didn’t seem like a dragon to Veraform. It looked like a salamander with transparent butterfly wings. Veraform wouldn’t complain though. An extra minor soul was a pretty big deal, not to mention the abilities the creature had. Veraform would call the soul forward and create a fairy dragon once he had enough mana, but once again he was met with the perpetual problem of being a dungeon core.

He would have to wait for more mana.