“How could this happen? We were only on the first floor. How were there two of those things already? Don’t they need real corpses?” Thant was rambling question after question. Maybe he was trying to rationalize how they could have lost or maybe he was trying to convince himself none of this was real.

Veraform didn’t care what his goal was, the ramblings were delightful. They were proof of his superiority over these insects.

“Three people must have died in there before we came. Two students and the master. If the teacher had made it out he would have left some sign that people had died. Gather some wood. We need to make some graves. Lets not let this happen again.” Veraform recognized this as the voice of the long haired man, the most formidable of the group. He was flattered that they thought he had killed three others before this, when in fact he’d only killed one.

The others were silent. Perhaps grieving in their own ways or too shocked to do so. Veraform wished he could see above the surface and get a good look at them. Instead he turned his attention to his menu. His mana was full at 130, he had gained an additional common soul, and he gained a whopping 50 KP, more than twice the amount he gained from marcus.

The mana would be used to expand his first floor, while the KP would be saved. How would he use the common soul though? The only minion he had that used common souls was bonework demons, but he needed a corpse to create those, and he had absorbed Sam and lost the corpse so that she wouldn’t be taken from him.

While he gave it thought he began expanding his first floor. He could still hear the others outside, building makeshift graves to warn others. Veraform spent 103 mana expanding this floor, bringing it to 95 by 9 by 80 feet. He had a huge new area to fill with rooms for mana production. The place would be largely empty until he developed more rooms to put in it, but he was fine with that. It was primarily just for mana production.

As Veraform began rampantly adding rooms he suddenly got a notification.

Uh Oh!

Room limit’s 50 on first floor. No workaround.

The tone was jarring. What had been happening to these notifications? First they had strange illegible symbols and now the tone shifts entirely. Could they be broken? Who made them to begin with? The phrase ‘no workaround’ makes it seem like the limits the system had weren’t intentional, but then why had previous messages been so frustrating about their explanations?

These were questions to ponder later. His current problem was more pertinent. He was limited to 50 rooms. That brought his mana regen to 9 and mana capacity to 255. How would he get more than 4 or 5 floors if his mana regen was so low? What was the point of expanding any further then? He could fit hundreds of 5 by 5 rooms here but now he could only make 50. It was time for some serious planning. If he was going to have this much room he would make it worthwhile. Veraform took his time planning and making rooms. Most of them were still bare, but he also planned on adding more sigil rooms and rat tunnels. Mechamputax could open portals to different sigil rooms and cross the dungeon quickly. This could be used to their advantage.

The second half of the first floor would be devoted to Mechamputax hunting and slaughtering adventurers, while the first half would gauge the strength and abilities of adventurers. As Veraform worked, the adventurers finished making the graves. As he heard them leave the general area he made out the long haired man saying something.

“We’re getting Shumu.” There was a venom in his words. By the sound of it, they’d be back and they’d be bringing a friend. Veraform was excited. Reinvigorated, he got back to work on his first floor. It took him a while, and he had to refill some areas with dirt, which cost him mana, but eventually he was done. Left with 12 mana, he had made a thoroughly impressive dungeon floor.

He moved Mechamputax’s chamber and the staircase deeper into the dungeon and began reinforcing the walls of the dungeon with stone. He didn’t want anyone defeating the point of the dungeons layout by breaking down walls. Only the second half of the dungeon would have stone walls though.

It had only cost him one or two mana per room but that was still nearly 30 mana so he had to wait a few hours. In that time he also respawned all of his rats and watched as Mechamputax gathered the bones of his second body and poured the vile fluid from the sigil room on them. They began to rattle and vibrate before reforming into his shape. It appeared Veraform wouldn’t have to worry about bringing him back as long as one body lived.

As he watched he realized he needed to re-summon the imps and Zelphy. Once the walls had been reinforced he did. This time Leo had gotten lucky and emerged from the portal with wings, while Sett did not. Zelphy, meanwhile, was unchanged.

What to do with this new common soul? Veraform wondered. Could he put it in a weaker body and somehow make the body stronger? That would be worth testing. Once he had the mana to summon a giant rat, but only the new common soul remaining, he tried. He focused on the idea of the giant rat and on the soul. Suddenly there was a flash and the rat came into existence, standing there, dazed. It squeaked, then turned it’s head to look around the room. It’s squeaking got louder and more frantic as it began hopping around the room.

Veraform wondered if it was confused at first, but then he saw hair falling out and chunks of skin following. The creature's body wasn’t holding up. Not wanting to waste the mana he channeled on it to put the beast down and gain KP. Somewhat to Veraform’s disappointment, he only gained the normal 2 KP.

Perhaps he should have put the soul in an imp so that it could have communicated with it.

A simple oversight, he thought.

Once again, he was waiting for mana when that familiar lurch came. INTRUDER!

It was another fairy dragon. This one simply sat on the floor at the entrance. It didn’t go further in. It just waited. “Leo” Veraform projected. “Go to the beast. See if it will speak.” Leo took flight and flapped about through the corridors until he reached the entrance.

“Who are you” there was malice in the imps' words, more for show than anything. The small dragon dropped its head and spoke.

“I was sent here by the fairies. They sent another before me but she did not return. Since she didn’t return we assume you’ve bested her and now I have been sent as tribute. We humbly ask if the lord of your dungeon would enter a contract with us. Grant us your power and we will send more tributes to you.” It’s voice was high like Zelphy’s, but it’s tone was dire, and more mature.

Veraform was skeptical. “Ask it what power it would want in return.”

Leo obliged and asked ”What exactly do you want from our master?”

“One of our strongest would enter the dungeon and make the pact. He would expect mana in exchange for our tributes.”

“How will he know to come if we kill you now” Leo asked at the behest of Veraform.

“He will arrive tomorrow regardless. I am not expected to return.”

“Who is he?” Leo questioned.

“Curupira. He is the guardian of these woods.”

A forest guardian. Veraform could grant it power, or he could trick the creature into entering the dungeon and then slaying it, most likely for another common soul, and possibly a new kind of minion. “Lead her to the second floor. Allow her to drink from the fairy tree, then we will accept her as an offering,” Veraform told the imp.

He obeyed and led the hesitant creature. Their pace was slow as the lizard looked at the sigils and pantries. It went wide eyed when it saw Mechamputax. Once it had gone down the stairs its eyes were even wider.

“I- it’s like a dream” She floated into the lost woods. Almost as if she could see a path, she flew in a straight line to the entrance that led to the fairy tree. She teleported to the foot of the tree and began drinking. As she did Leo made his way to the tree. Once there he floated above her and waited. She gulped and slurped, knowing these were her final moments.

Leo blasted at her and met no resistance. 5 KP, 1 minor soul and 10 mana.

With the mana he gained Veraform summoned another fairy dragon. This one floated out from the branches at the top of the tree and landed gently on the ground.

“Hello!” She spoke in a bubbly voice and the greeting wasn’t really directed at anyone.

“Hi!” Zelphy aparated in front of the new lizard. She had been watching from the branches. “I’m Zelphy, and I’m so happy I've got a new friend to play with!” She swung her arms and as she did a bubble appeared around her and then popped and then continued on like that. “What’s your name?” She cocked her head inquisitively.

“I’m… uhhh… I don’t think I have one yet” She looked puzzled.

Veraform was certain now. He had suspected the souls retained no memory from before they became his, but this confirmed it. He couldn’t tell with the imps since he started with them, and Zelphy never spoke before he got her, and Mechamputax wasn’t much of a talker anyway.

“Zamp” Veraform decided aloud. “Your name will be Zamp.”

“Perfect” Zelphy smiled at the other lizard. “Let's go play Zamp!”

Veraform watched as the energetic fairy taught Zamp to play some game she had made up on the spot. It was some kind of tag, but crossing boundaries in the lost woods was only allowed if the players teleported across them. Veraform was amused by how quickly Zamp agreed to the foolishness.

He turned his attention to the single common soul he had yet to find a suitable body for.

“Now,” he thought “to see what I can do with you”