-Core Room-

Congratulations! You have gained a new level, you are now level 15. Congratulations! As you have reached level 15 you may now create an additional floor.

The massive cave bear let out one final roar before falling to the relentless skeletons that were assaulting it from all sides. Steve felt the rather delicious feeling of it’s Animus flow into him as it perished bringing him close to his limit. Various wild animals had been attracted to the dungeon over the past couple of weeks allowing Steve the opportunity to gather some much needed Animus and increase his level. A couple of bears, a pack of wolves, a particularly vicious family of badgers and others had all met their end at the hand of Steve’s minions gaining him two levels.

Name: Steve Race: Dungeon Core Sub Race: (Unknown)

Class: Creator Quality: God Touched Disposition: - Level: 15

Characteristics:

Strength: 0 Constitution: 20

Dexterity: 0 Intelligence: 38 Luck: 3

Mana: 2824/3800 Animus: 1780/1900 Celestial: 1832/3800

Following Nova’s recommendation Steve had been saving his Animus and Celestial energy rather than just spending it as it came in rather than be left with nothing in case of an emergency. Now that he was close to full he was ready to begin work on his second floor. He had been using his Mana however as he was currently gaining that much faster than his other resources. The results of his experimentation could be seen in some of his skeletal minions.

Name: (None) Race: Undead Sub Race: Skeleton

Class: Mage Quality: Uncommon Disposition: Unwavering Loyalty Level: 5

Description: Skeletal mages are the lowest tier of magic uses found within the undead race. They are usually attuned to a single element and can cast weak spells from said element.

By Infusing his mana directly into a skeleton he was able to upgrade them to skeletal mages. Depending on the element he infused would dictate the type of magic they used and would also shade their bones a different colour. So far he had two fire mages with slightly red bones who were able to throw weak balls of flame at their enemies. Two water mages with blue tinted bones that could make small patches of water on the ground and then freeze it creating a slick surface. Two air mages with yellowish coloured bones who were able to build up energy within them before releasing it in a burst of electricity shocking their enemies. And finally two earth mages with a brownish tint to their bones who were able to create fist sized chunks of stone before sending it flying at their opponents.

The addition of these mages meant that even larger animals such as the bear that was just slain were no real threat to his minions. As a result he had been able to farm up a decent amount of Animus just off these critters since no other adventurers had visited. He expected that to change soon however as Azrael reported seeing a large number of people arriving recently and Steve himself had seen them clear out a section of the woods and begin construction of various buildings and an outer wall. He assumed that they wanted to finished building before anybody visited his dungeon and with the large number of people arriving he expected that they would be finished soon.

“That last fight brought me up to 1780 Animus so I think I’ll finally get started on my second floor. I hope none of the adventurers come in and interrupt me while I’m building though.”

“You will be able to continue building so long as they are not present on that floor. Similarly if adventurers were on your second floor but your first floor was empty you would be able to modify the first floor.” Nova advised.

“Ok great. Well if anything happens just let me know.”

Steve wanted his next floor to be much tougher than his first floor so instead of just building a straightforward path he decided to mix it up a bit and create multiple branching paths. Not a maze as such as each path would reach a dead end sooner or later and backtracking should be simple, however to find the correct path will require a lot of exploration or luck.

It should be easy enough to change the layout every week or so to mess with the adventurers.

Quite some time later Steve had finished his layout and moved his core room to the new boss room on the second floor. He added a spiral staircase at the end of the first floor boss room that leads down to the second floor and added another staircase that led back to the start of the first floor. To make sure that adventurers didn’t simply skip both floors and head straight to his core room he added something new he unlocked at level 15.

Name: One Way Door Type: Barrier Quality: Scarce

Description: Once a person steps through a one way door they will be unable to go back.

Steve initially tried to just create a room and put this as the entrance, thinking that if somebody went in then they would basically be dead since they wouldn’t be able to escape, however he found it impossible to do so. After speaking with Nova he found that such doors can only be used providing that their is a way out on the other side.

The first staircase led down to a small empty room which three branching paths. Each path leads to a room which three more paths which in turn lead to another room. In total this made the second floor have 12 rooms (13 if you count the first entry room) on the second floor. At first he was going to create another series of branching paths for another 27 rooms but realised that while he could create that many rooms, he would fall far short when it came time to fill them with traps, minions and loot. With the layout finished Steve reviewed his new minion and trap options.

Summonable minions available:

Basic - Skeleton - 10 Animus (Unlocked at level 0)

Common - Zombie - 20 Animus (Unlocked at level 5)

Common - Ghoul - 20 Animus (Unlocked at level 5)

Uncommon - Mage - 40 Animus (Unlocked at level 10)

Uncommon - Wight - 40 Animus (Unlocked at level 10)

Scarce - Death Knight - 80 Animus (Unlocked at level 15)

Scarce - Spectre - 80 Animus (Unlocked at level 15)

Traps currently available for construction:

Pitfall - 10 Animus (Unlocked at level 0)

Spikes - 10 Animus (Unlocked at level 5)

Dart Trap - 20 Animus (Unlocked at level 5)

Spear Trap - 20 Animus (Unlocked at level 10)

Trap Door - 20 Animus (Unlocked at level 10)

Grease Trap - 40 Animus (Unlocked at level 15)

Steam Trap - 60 Animus (Unlocked at level 15)

Steve wanted to try to keep to his current setup of having 5 minions in each room except the boss room with the final rooms being tougher. To that end Steve summoned 5 ghouls in one of the first three rooms, 5 zombies in another and a mix of 3 zombies and 2 ghouls in the last. As he hadn’t yet seen these guys in action he spent some time watching them move around to see what they were like. The ghouls were somewhere between a human and a gnome in size, however due to their hunched over look they appeared shorter than they were. They had long sharp looking claws which had a green colouring to their edge making Steve think they may be poisonous. They seemed to be quite quick on their feet as well, much different to the other undead Steve had so far. The zombies on the other hand were even slower than his skeletons but Steve expected this was due to all the rotting flesh they were carrying around on their frames which likely makes them much tougher to kill. Both the zombies and ghouls seemed to ignore any weapons and armour when Steve created them so he assumed they weren’t able to use such equipment.

Moving on to the corridors connecting these three rooms to the rest of the floor was where Steve wanted his traps. In three of them he placed spear and dart traps which when triggered by stepping on certain portions of the floor would trigger either spears to come shooting out of the wall/floor/ceiling or a spread of darts to be fired down the tunnel. To help disguise the trigger plates Steve patterned the entire floor in a tiled design. In another three tunnels he placed grease traps that would lead into pitfalls with spikes at the bottom. The theory being that anybody unwary or unlucky enough to step into the grease would slide straight into the trap and impale themselves at the bottom. The other three corridors he left empty of traps.

In the final rooms Steve placed a single mage along with a wight and a mix of zombies and ghouls. As he didn’t have enough mana to upgrade his mages from basic skeletons he simply paid the extra Animus in this case rather than waiting for the rather steep 1000 mana each it costs to upgrade them. He created wands for each type of mage on this floor from wood and copper, capped with a small gemstone on either end. Rubies for the fire mages, emeralds for the earth mages and sapphires for the water mages. He did not have a gemstone specific for air magic so he just used quartz instead. He also created cloth robes for each of the mages in their matching colour, once done he imbued each with mana to the appropriate element. For the wights he used his newly aquired steel to create armour, shields and spears. The simple idea was that the mage would stay at range with the wight providing cover while the zombies and ghouls attack at melee range.

He had briefly considered just filling this floor with his most powerful minions but apart from the cost, which would be quite prohibitive, he also wanted to save some stuff for his other floors. Having reach level 15 he could have a total of 4 floors and this was just his second. Besides he figured that if it was too difficult then people might not come in at all.

In the boss room Steve wanted to use one of his new rare quality creatures as having discussed it with Nova he learned that his boss’s will usually rank up two stages from their initial start. This is how he managed to get a wight as his first floor boss despite only having basic skeletons to work with. He also found that once a boss has been created he was stuck with it. Wanting some advise on the topic Steve decided to discuss his options with Nova and Azrael.

“Hey guys. I was hoping to get your opinion on something. At the moment I can create one more boss and I wanted to use one of my more powerful minions as the base but since I don’t know what they will turn into I’m having trouble deciding.”

“I’m glad to see that you are considering your options for once rather than just making decisions.” Nova said.

“Errr...Thanks. I think.”

“What are you current options?” Azrael asked into the awkward silence that followed.

“Right. I have both Death Knight and Spectre unlocked right now. The descriptions says that a Death Knight is a towering skeletal creature who excels at leading and commanding other undead beneath him. The other option is a Spectre which is a ghostly apparition that can drain the life force from its victims. As an ethereal creature the Spectre is immune to most physical attacks but weak to magical ones.”

“Regrettably as you have not yet unlocked the appropriate minions I am unable to tell you what they will turn into so I will be of little use in this decision.” Nova said with a touch of sadness that she could not help.

“I would personally recommend the Spectre simply besides from a few mages all of your minions attacks are physical. That said as I am unsure what each would turn into when summoned I can not say which would be the best choice.” Azrael advised after some consideration.

“That makes sense, thanks Azrael.”

Azrael simply shrugged in response before turning back to the Celestial Quartz Steve had replaced in the core room and once more basking in its glow. Frowning at his apparent lack of interest Steve considered asking if anything was wrong but ultimately dismissed it. He was much more interested in summoning his new boss.

Turning to the centre of the room Steve focussed his concentration and summoned a Spectre. A few moments later shadows seemed to flow from the walls of the room and converge in the middle of the room. After taking on a congealed look it then spread out to form the shape of a skull with a dark hood and a pair of disembodied clawed hands. The entire thing was an inky black colour and seemed to flow like smoke while the eyes left behind a trailing blue light. Happy with his new and impressive creature Steve focussed on with the intent of turning it into his new boss.

Would you like to turn upgrade your Spectre into your new boss?

Y/N

Warning! This minions will be higher ranked than your current final boss and will therefore take its place. Your current final boss will be moved to the appropriate floor (1st).

Steve was a little surprised at the warning, however since he had planned to have his Wight go to the 1st floor anyway he didn’t see it as much of an issue.

Yes.

Immediately after that though the spectre froze in midair before congealing in the middle of the room once more. It then changed to a light turquoise colour before taking the shape of a spectral woman with long dirty looking hair. Like the spectre it seemed to float in midair and move like smoke as well has having claws at the ends of its fingers. However it now seemed to possess a body that looked like it was covered in a rotting dress though their were still no discernible legs.

Name: (None) Race: Undead Sub Race: Spirit

Class: Banshee (Boss) Quality: Rare Disposition: Unwavering Loyalty Level: 15

Description: Banshee’s are one of the higher tier forms of undead spirits. Like other spirits they are capable of draining the life from the living as both a means of attack and a way to heal itself. They are practically invulnerable against most forms of physical attack but weaker to magical damage. Banshee’s are particularly noted for their signature Banshee’s Wail which is a sonic attack capable of stunning and in some cases incapacitating all who hear it.

After it finished upgrading the boss wight that was in the room turned left to take up its position on the first floor. Interestingly it seemed to shrink down a little after it left prompting Steve to examine it.

Name: (None) Race: Undead Sub Race: Skeleton

Class: Wight (Boss) Quality: Rare Disposition: Unwavering Loyalty Level: 10

“Huh. Thats weird. The wight boss just went down from level 15 to level 10.”

“That is because it is no longer your final boss.” Explained Nova. “Minions have a level limit based upon their floor. First floor minions cannot be higher than level 5 and the boss for that floor cannot be higher than level 10. For the second floor minions cannot be higher than level 10 and any boss for that floor is maxed at level 15. Though usually the second floor does not have a boss as you gain one boss for every other floor you unlock, the bosses are therefore normally found on odd numbered floors. The exception is the final boss which will always guard your core room and whose level will always be equal to your own.”

Steve shook his metaphysical head.

“I feel like I should already know this. Every time you explain something like this it’s like you're telling me something I know.”

“That is because you will instinctively know this, however until it is verbalised you won’t consciously be aware of it. Or at least, that is my assumption since dungeon cores usually do not have sentience so early and instead rely purely on instinct. You are like a child born with knowledge you do not yet understand.” Nova said with a strange smile on her skull.

“I suppose I am only a couple of weeks old…”

Azrael looked down and quietly sighed to himself before once again turning to the glow of the celestial quartz.