Chapter 12: Refining a challenge

Waking up for the second time from leveling up in the recent week, Lethe felt a large growth of his body and power. If he could lift a bottle previously now he felt he could easily carry twice as much. Checking his [Status], his guess was proven true. STATUS NAME: Lethe RACE: Dungeon Core CLASS: Locked LEVEL: 3 (Sub-trait: Challenging, ???, ???) XP: 23/400 (Earned XP/Required XP) FLOOR ONE MOB POINTS: 25/25 (Used/Total) ROOMS: 6 (60m^3 total volume of control FLOOR TWO MOB POINTS: 50/50 (Used/Total) ROOMS: 14 (140m^3 total volume of control FLOOR THREE MOB POINTS: 00/150 (Used/Total) ROOMS: 24 (240m^3 total volume of control His allowed mob points were tripled and the amount of space he could create for the next floor was almost doubled. Eagerly checking his own gem, he saw that the emerald core had grown another layer, growing from pebble-sized to the size of a closed fist. Another detail he noticed were the increase in his skill levels. [Skill rank up!] [Territory Control 4 | Rank 4/10 | Allows the user to expand his territory by spreading consciousness. Direction of expansion can be specified with will. Territory can now be shrunk by ceding consciousness.Expansion can be used in conjunction with creation for finer control.] [Skill rank up!] [Creation - Mob 3| Rank: 3/10 | Sub Skills: [Combine] | Allows the user to generate mobs based on mob points. Mobs can increase in rank by consuming or defeating mobs of equal rank. The user is now able to summon advanced mobs through direct consumption of MP.] He guessed that he had ranked both of the skills up due to him reaching level 3 and the lack of a notification until he woke up confirmed it. Finally, he expanded the list of mobs he could create now. MOB LIST [Acid Slime 1 | Rank 1 | MP: 1 | Drops: 1-3 Copper Coins] [Acid Slime 2 | Rank 2 | MP: 2 | Drops: 25% 1 Bottle of Acid, 2-6 Copper Coins] [Acid Slime 3 | Rank 3 | MP: 4 | Skill: Acid Splash | Drops: 25% 2-3 Bottles of Acid, 2-6 Copper Coins] [Acid Slime 4 | Rank 4 | MP: 8 | Skill: Acid Rain | Drops: 2% Skill Book: Acid Rain, 5% Acid Resistance Potion, 3-5 Bottles of Acid, 5-12 Copper Coins] [Mutated Acid Slime 4 | Rank 4 | MP: 10 | Skill: Acid Rain, Dual Mind | Drops: 2% Skill Book: Acid Rain, 5% Acid Resistance Potion, 25% 4-6 Bottles of Acid, 8-16 Copper Coins] [Stone Slime 1 | Rank 1 | MP: 2 | Drops: 25% 1 Hardened Stone, 3-5 Copper Coins] [Stone Slime 1 + | Rank 1 | MP: 3 | Drops: 1 Hardened Stone, 5 Copper Coins] [Stone Slime 2 | Rank 2 | MP: 4 | Drops: 25% 1-2 Hardened Stone, 6-10 Copper Coins] [Stone Slime 3 | Rank 3 | MP: 8 | Skill: Stone Shield | Drops: 10% Stone Shield, 25% 1-3 Hardened Stone, 9-15 Copper Coins] Looking over the list, he confirmed the fact that he now had the ability to summon his higher ranked mobs directly, which would allow him to optimize the difficulty of his floors better. He also assumed that any higher ranked mobs would either be unlocked as he manually created them or when he leveled up further. What was disappointing to him though was the lack of any new types of [Slime] mobs. He had thought that he would get new types with every level up, but perhaps the restrictions were different. Regardless, Lethe had a new floor to build. Focusing on the small alcove at the end of the second floor, where his gem now rested, Lethe expanded the size so that it could comfortably fit any groups that were able to pass through the rest of his dungeon. Focusing on his consciousness, Lethe felt that the dirt and stone had some traces of moisture around parts of his second floor. Assuming that these areas had access to a water source, Lethe located the dampest spot on his second floor and expanded his consciousness into a line, digging into the walls until he found his goal. An underground water table, presumably with a source to a river on the surface graced him with its presence. Holding his consciousness near the edge of the water table, Lethe focused on excavating a tiny tunnel, barely half a meter across, from the resting area at the end of the floor to the pool of fresh water. Soon enough, his resting area had a small pool of fresh water for adventurer's to use to clean or refill their supplies. Finished with his modifications, Lethe focused on the very edge of the alcove, and created a meter high square opening. He started to expand downwards once more, creating the twisting stairs he had previously, stopping once he was 20 meters below the previous floor. He fashioned the stairs with moss, discovering now that some of them were glowing with a very mild luminescence. Another hidden perk from leveling up, he assumed. He interspersed the luminescent moss with the older ones, creating pockets of light for adventurer's to see the surroundings as they descended to the next floor. Already, Lethe had an idea of what he wanted to accomplish for his third floor. Given that he did not have any other mobs yet, he hoped to truly challenge any parties that were able to venture to this point of his dungeon. From the bottom of the stairs, Lethe directly invoked his skills to create a semi-spherical cavernous room without bothering to expand on any of the details for now. He saw that the room that was created with just the template had the luminescent moss as well as drips and drops of water from the stalactites, creating a further haunting ambience. By the time he finished excavating the first room, he felt his connection to the first floor grow constricted, which he assumed to be [Jones and Folks] entering the dungeon once more. Ignoring the party for now, Lethe created a short narrow tunnel, barely wide enough to have 2 standard-sized people to walk abreast, leading directly into his second room. He continued to follow the same pattern for this room and the next tunnel, and further on until he had six rooms created, each leading into the other. Checking the layout of the rooms with his consciousness, Lethe compared it to a sinewy snake. Each of the tunnels leading to the next room were not directly at the other side of the room but rather either on the left or right walls from the entrance to it. This resulted in a curving "S-shaped" layout of these 6 rooms. At the 6th room, he created a longer tunnel, which then started to branch off into 3 directions. At the end of each of the paths, he created another room, with a total of 9 rooms created for his 3rd floor so far.

Lethe left the central room of the branching paths alone and instead created 2 tunnels from the branching rooms. He left the layout of the tunnels the same as earlier in the floor, both of the tunnels leading into another room and finally another tunnel joining each of them together. At the middle of the tunnel that joined the rooms, he expanded it into a short path and created another room. Each of the rooms from this point on, he made sure to make them larger from the ones he made previously, keeping the area cost overall the same size by further narrowing the tunnels. Creating a further four rooms with short paths between each other, Lethe finished creating 16 rooms in total. At that point though, he felt a large pressure descend on him, which he now realized would be exhaustion. He couldn't continue to create, not for the rest of day at least. He knew he still had areas he could expand into, but his mental muscles were too exhausted. Spreading his consciousness to cover the half-finished 3rd floor, Lethe invoked the cavernous template to all of them and decided to keep the template running instead of stopping it after once pass. The pressure this caused was much lower than actively expanding his consciousness and designating rooms, so he was able to relax while he thought over what he would occupy his third floor with. Lethe wanted the third floor to be a genuine challenge, one where any party of the appropriate level wouldn't be able to leave within a day. He wanted to live up to the moniker of [Challenging] and perhaps, with this floor he would be able to unlock another sub-trait. ------