Congratulations!

You have reached level nine.

Next level up at 10,000 mana.

+25 dungeon points

So many monsters were killed that I almost leveled up twice. “Almost being the keyword here” Once I saw how the Arrowheads had no effect on the adults because of their armor I just sent them away.

I’ll need to do something with them so they are not so useless but other than that the whole thing was a success. “It wasn’t as challenging as I hoped it would be, especially for the adults, but the children's screams of joy as they bounced up and down the mushroom trampoline or the high pitched and excited “Weee” they made as they slid down the tunnel was music to my ears.

I’d have loved to let them fight Miki or Sally as an end boss but I can’t afford to lose them right now. Plus, fighting a boss monster without receiving a reward for it is something I don’t think they’ll forgive.”

Looking at my Mana pool I decided that instead of waiting a day or two to level again I will work on the second floor instead. “But first, one last change,” I grin from the idea that hit me, “The first floor might not be too dangerous but I’ll make sure it’s never underestimated again.” For a floor to have a weakness is not a bad thing”, they need to be beatable and knowing how to exploit weaknesses is an important skill to have if one wants to succeed in life. Nonetheless, I can’t let any floor have a glaring weakness, “Especially if that weakness is a rubber suit…”

No, the normal Arrowheads will stay and attack any child that falls down from the path. They’ll be ordered to avoid the face and neck but otherwise, it's okay to cut off fingers. This will keep the tension even for children and is a good lesson that nothing worthwhile in life comes without its own dangers.

For the adults, a different variation of the salamander will work great. “A Lancetail.” These won't have the arrow-shaped head that allows for parting the stalks of the mushrooms and will be slightly bigger and heavier which won’t let them remain invisible underneath. The Lancetailes will part the stalks as they move, causing their approach to be visible from over the caps of the sea of mushrooms.

The adults will have to stay aware of their surroundings, as the pointy appendage of the Lancetail’s will be able to pierce through and make holes in their feet if they aren’t paying attention properly. The hardened tip should be strong enough to penetrate even bones.

After creating a few and setting them on the first-floor ecosystem they quickly become the top predator of the mushroom sea.

Satisfied with the result I shift my attention to the second floor.

The first thing I do is increase the area drastically. The new area is about two hundred meters over fifty. “Still small for what I want it to be but a good start.” I can increase it more but I rather populate it than leave it bare.

The two kinds of trees I can create are interspersed randomly around the new area and the few bushes join around them. This creates small islands of green in the large empty space. Keeping to the mushroom motifs I add about half a dozen giant glowing mushrooms down on the ground. These are large monstrosities. Far larger than the ones in the second half of the first floor. Each is at least five meters tall and has a huge cap like an umbrella. I alter them to glow bluish-purple. The last thing I do is twist and turn the ground to make changes in elevation so that the landscape doesn't look flat.

This forces me to make the whole floor ten meters higher but is worth the investment as the result looks much more organic in nature.

I even add areas where future creaks will flow. A few rapids and even a small two meter waterfall that drains into a shallow pool of water are added. No water for now but I’m starting to get closer to the mana requirements of the [Terraforming] skill. Just a couple more levels to go and the new area I just added won’t just be a nice boost to my mana regeneration but a unique forest ecosystem of its own.

The next thing I do is channel a few thousand bugs from the first floor into the second. I laugh at the view of them going down the slip n slide. I then make them spread to all reaches of the second floor and to give them another food source by creating a few simple mushrooms that normally grow in the forest above, these are not bioluminescent. Dozens of flower alterations are planted but only in the proximity of the giant mushrooms. “Don’t know what I’ll do with these six spots eventually but they will look super magical in the mostly normal forest.”

Next, I splurge and buy hares, a male and a female, and place a couple next to each new tree and the small island of green around it.

The hares reproduce quickly in the mana fueled environment and as the island spreads in size the hares will spread with them.

By the time everything grows enough to cover the whole floor the population of hares will increase in number dramatically and it will provide food for the predators I plan for the floor.

“Sure, my animals don’t need food but I noticed that the strongest and oldest of my animals are slowly changing and mutating depending on the things they do and eat.”

The change is easy to tell with my worms. The very first ones I created are not only bigger than the last ones, but they’ve also gained different secondary characteristics. In general, the small cavern of tunnels I first started with, the one I moved exactly as it was from between the roots of the once dead tree to make space for the first floor, has vastly changed.

After the days that passed, as it lay forgotten by me, not only did it double in size but the animals inside it have expanded not only in number but in variety. The closed up ecosystem had to rely on the same amount of ambient mana as when it was much much smaller. When I moved the tunnel system I didn’t leave much of an opening for my mana to pass through. “I was too excited to start work on the first floor and have been keeping myself entertained since then.”

The secluded ecosystem adapted in an unexpected manner.

With not enough ambient mana to sustain them the animals became more ferocious. Killing each other to release mana into the enclosed system. And as they killed and ate they changed, differentiating themselves from others of their species. As I watched them struggle I saw that their numbers stopped increasing and instead of they were growing in size.

The strong were killing the weak to allow themselves more mana to grow with. The unique variations were intriguing.

“It seems like some of the animals have become truly magical.” One bug developed a method for spitting acid. A flying bug developed electrical shock which he zapped other bugs with. One of the mice is somehow able to blend with shadows, disappearing almost entirely from sight.

I enter the [Splicer] skill interface and sure enough, the once empty -Traits, Abilities and Magic- tab now has those powers and more for me to choose from and manipulate to my liking using the interfaces other design tabs.

For now, I leave it as I’m not sure what it is I’ll use it for. “Traps would be a nice addition to my dungeon as currently, it is severely lacking them,” and while the choices right now are interesting I’d like more of them so I give an infusion of mana to the isolated ecosystem. This sparks a population boom that will hopefully lead to more variations.

Returning my attention back to the second floor I manipulate the giant mushrooms, adding small dens underneath them and creating an ermine in each den. Six ermine in total. Two light brown, one black as coal another white as snow and the last two a mix, with brown fur everywhere but on their bellies.

The cute mammals are adorable and in my opinion, complement the glowing fungi well. The white ermine is already trying to climb his mushroom only to keep falling down and rolling around in the dirt. “Eventually I’ll also add a monster version of them that will roam the forest as predators.”

Next on my list are the flying squirrels. I summon five of them so that they can start reproducing and leave them be. A few more porcupines follow and are added to the seven that are already roaming the forest floor. “Once I have enough mana I’ll make their monster versions my long-range threats for the floor.”

Going back to the flying squirrels I realize that if I want to maximize their potential I need to have many more trees for them to use as platforms to jump and glide from. A flying surprise attack from an unsuspecting tree on an adventurers back is quite the deadly attack. So I look through the eyes of the monsters hunting outside and search for interesting additions.

Currently, I have Sitka Spruce trees, around forty meters tall and an Alder tree around thirty meters tall. Both have straight trunks whose thicker branches start high up. As such, I’m looking for something that will fill their lower gaps. This will allow an aerial attack to come from all heights and directions.

A beautiful tree catches my eyes, it’s few leaves are colored red and deep orange from the coming winter, leaving most of its branches somewhat bare. The white colored bark is what really catches my attention, however, and I decide to add it to my personal forest. I lower it down and pick for it a nice spot closer to one of the huge mushrooms. In a few hours, its roots will suck up enough mana for it to become part of my dungeon and be added to my list of things I can create.

“I wonder why the trees on the surface of my expanding territory don’t count as part of me even though they are clearly surrounded by mana? Evident by the mushrooms that have popped up everywhere there’s a mana vent…”

With the latest addition to the second-floor flora what I’m left with is just enough mana to summon a few more red foxes to my existing two, but instead, I decide that a small experiment will be more fun to spend that mana on. The [Conscious Growth] skill is able to take my intentions and meaning and use them to transform my dungeon inhabitants. And as I learned from the tree, that change isn’t always what I’d expect it to be. I thought that when I meant for it to be a beacon for everyone it will cause it to grow high into the air. To be seen from afar and lead visitors to my location.

“Instead I got a fat tree with fruits. Could be worse I guess…” I say with a small sigh.

This made me start thinking of how else it can surprise me, so I’m going to try imbuing mana with a general idea into the two foxes and see what the result it. The male red fox was the first one I created, an almost perfect replica of the one I killed. Making a copy of him was my way of apologizing for having to take his life. It made me feel better that he won’t be forgotten. Sure, I knew that he wasn’t the same fox but it was a way to commemorate his memory. “I did the same with every animal I hunted so far and I plan to do the same in the future.”

The second fox I created was a female so that the pair can reproduce. ”And sure enough she was pregnant, belly bulging to the sides carrying inside who knows how many pupps.” This makes the experiment even more exciting.

Theoretically, giving them as much mana as they cost to create should double their size. However, from my experience, channeling mana into my creations will show results like only half the mana used. So eighty mana will give the size increase of forty, “Or something like that as I can’t create a fox for less than eighty mana points to check.”

It doesn’t matter really, as I don’t care if they get bigger or not because what I think of as I begin to channel mana through our shared connection is the concept of intelligence. The foxes are by far the smartest animals in my dungeon right now, as monsters like Miki and Sally don’t count as animals, and I want to see what the results will be. “Or if I can even notice any change.”

Intelligence after all, unlike the other meanings I imbued into my creations, is not really something you can discern visually easily and surely not from just their physical appearance. “Unless, of course, for some reason, they develop big brains and giant heads,” something I really hope doesn’t happen but I try to avoid any subjective influences. It’s not easy as for some reason I remember foxes being related to trickery and sly behavior. But I try my best to keep the meaning I send objective. Concentrating on the word itself more than anything and preventing my subconsciousness from affecting it.

As the mana flows and my meaning solidifies through the connection, the two foxes stop and begin looking around. Being the top predator of my dungeon, not counting Miki, they have nothing to fear. Both are always together, hunting, eating and sleeping. Which might explain why once they noticed the mana connection they walked closer to one another and sat down without a care in the world. And as more and more meaning flowed into them, with an expression of deep concentration they even closed their eyes and lowered their heads.

I feel something pull on the mana from their side. Urging it to flow faster and refining the meaning the mana is imbued with. As it enters their bodies the mana starts to change color, becoming ever slightly purple instead of the deep blue that left me.

“They are adding their own meaning to mine!”

Holding back my excitement I refuse their urge and keep sending mana at the same slow and steady pace I was doing until now. They don’t understand that adding meaning to something takes time. And the more careful you are and the more focus you have the better will your meaning be understood.

Life is meaningless in a way. We live and we die. Everything else we do in between we do because we want to have more time alive or enjoy the time we have more. Life even has a guidebook, a set of rules that lets you play it safe. Just do what everyone else does, it's that easy.

Easy but usually boring, yet most people choose to live life this way. Those who refuse to live like that need to find what it is they enjoy doing and shape their life accordingly. And how does one do it? By giving life meaning.

Young children are interested in everything, having no focus on what they want, and for good reason. They haven't experienced anything yet. They don’t even know what they like or dislike. However, as they grow, their field of interests narrows down. Most humans focus their interests on what their surrounding tells them. Doing what is safe and letting their surroundings give them meaning. Most even live their safe lives mildly happy but almost all die with regrets.

However, some people try to shape their surroundings instead. Living their lives one hardship after another, these usually die in peace, knowing that their lives held some meaning. That they managed to affect the world somehow with their actions.

What the foxes were doing to my mana made me think of them like children narrowing down my meaning by their own choices. Accepting the hardships that will come along with their decision. It makes me think, just for a moment for no apparent reason at all, why people say that ignorance is bliss and that happiness in intelligent people is truly rare.

Out of mana, I look at the result and just as I expected there is no physical change, the foxes stayed the same size and coloration. I observe for any small details I might have missed but their fur pattern stayed the same, nails and teeth aren’t longer, it’s not until I reach their eyes that I notice the change. Or more specifically they notice me.

Both are looking in the direction my heart is located. The dodecahedron cube which I moved to a small opening at the far end of the second floor. They stare directly at me, frozen in place and not even breathing.

Understanding flashes in their eyes after some time and the first to stir is the male. He looks away and takes a few steps. The way he moves lost its animalistic nature. Steps are slow and meticulous and he is looking around, carefully examining his surroundings as if seeing them for the first time.

The female looks at me for longer. No longer with the intensity both of them had at first but more in a curious sort of way. As if she had many questions and that my direction might hold some answers.

Her eyes draw me in and for the first time since I became a dungeon I try to speak to someone, “Can you hear me?” I ask and something glints in her eyes. I wait for a response to come but none does. “Can you talk?” I plea more than ask. I wait again but there's no answer. “I’m still alone.”

The small hope that I still had disappears and a wave of loneliness comes over me. I feel like ending this here and now, destroying my heart by myself and being done with everything. “Who knows how long my lifespan is. Years? Centuries? Eons? I could be immortal for all I know.”

The male fox returns to his mate and looks at me again. The female then puts her head on him and rubs her mate affectionately.

The show of love interrupts my own depressing thought process before it has a chance to gain momentum. And as the foxes finish cuddling and begin to play with each other, running around the second floor for the joy of running itself and not just for hunting, I remember the children's screams of joy as they went down the slide for the first time.

“An eternity of that doesn’t sound too bad, does it?” I force myself to smile and take a moment to appreciate all of my creations.