Chapter Eleven,

** ** ** Dungeon Core ** ** **

Oh my lords I can finally breath fresh air!!! I’ve reached the surface! Well actually there isn’t a notable difference, but at least the adventures can finally leave and stop violating the sanctity and basic principles between dungeon monster’s beasts and adventures.

After a month of constantly expanding his domain he had reached the other side of the mountain. He made a first floor above the very last room that lead out to the outside world.

I will add more floors to the first and eventually. I will need to come up with a solution to that because right now there is a problem with adding more to the first floor.

If he added more rooms to the first floor, then he would need to move the connection between the first and second floor. The further the first floor moves out in the future. The closer to his core room it would be. He would probably just need to move his core room to the room right below the current first floor room eventually. He’d have to think on this more. He might make it loop back to near the first room where it would then connect to the second floor. In his mind he had several labyrinth ideas. He would have to get back to this idea in the future.

Currently he was rather done expanding his influence. He had been constantly expanding all month except for a short break where he created another floor boss. He ended up with a total of sixty-one rooms. Four of the rooms were what he had deemed breeding rooms, which were off to the side. The breeder rooms were made to only be accessible to specific creatures. They were also hidden away from any possible adventures intrusion. Some were small tunnels, while others were insanely hidden. The predators, the foxes and hares, respected the breeders rooms entrances, due to Bastill’s request.

The next fifty-six rooms, which were also on the second-floor lead to the other side of the mountain in a straight line. With the remaining room being on the first floor and leading out to what his foxes said was a beautiful lake.

The reason he took a break to create a floor boss was because his passive mana absorption grew to a greater rate. It currently sat at four-thousand mana a day. After creating another floor boss, which he needed to level up, he proceeded to jump up three more levels to level nine. He was on the cusp of turning into an E ranked Dungeon.

I feel that the ranking system isn’t quite accurate for the actual power of the dungeon. Similar to how the adventures rank their own members using level and skill. I feel dungeons are more ranked off of their creatures and traps, which reminds me I don’t have any traps currently.

He felt stronger than E ranked. He guessed he would discover his actual strength when more adventurers readily came to test their me mettle within his dungeon. He could put trap making off for now since they were easy enough to make basic ones. He felt a resistance to being a basic dungeon. He had been human once he didn’t want to be just like any other dungeon. He felt the need to be unique. It must be the human side of him speaking. Humans always strived to be unique and different.

I guess some parts of me are still quite human.

His aim wasn’t to injure adventures, but he did need self-defense. It was a symbiotic relationship. The adventurers grow stronger due to his danger and also earn money. There needed to be danger just to keep him from being taken advantage of. Not to mention his end goal was to defend off a S ranked villain from destroying him. Not to mention his creatures were beings too. Not human, but they had their own lives and he felt responsible for that. He wouldn’t purposely try to kill adventures, but if it happened then it happened. He had come to terms with his new life style and form.

His new floor boss ended up being evolved from the Hare, which he had also removed from the breeder rooms. He didn’t want less evolved creatures living as well. It didn’t feel right to him. The new boss was no longer considered a Hare. It was classified as a Vampiric Rabbit Queen, he had named it Wenet; he had created her using the ceremonial blood catalyst. He used the Ceremonial Blood because it just felt right in his core. After meditating on the idea. He had settled on the idea.

He had taken the oldest Hare that had survived the foxes and transformed her into a beast. He figured that between the foxes continually hunting down their species and their species smaller birthing rates that is wouldn’t turn into a disaster. Wenet curiously laid intricate painted eggs, which he found curious. Her offspring from the painted eggs were different then herself, even their classification was different. They were all male, which left Wenet as the only one in their reproduction line. It appeared she didn’t need to copulate for reproduction, which after the spider debacle was quite the relief.

Well this is a big improvement on those little furry cannibalistic fuckers, though they still have awfully long fangs.

He ended up putting the very last room he had, right after his core room. The rest of the Hare rabidly died out, but the Vampiric Rabbit Queen brought out a new species with her. They were named Dracula Hares. She was the only species of their kind that was able to produce. Both she and the Dracula Hares looked alike. Their fur turned blood red and their eyes got larger. Their front teeth got bigger and turned dagger-sharp. They were faster and stronger than their far decedents. The Dracula hares had yellow eyes and reached four feet tall, while the Queen reached five feet high with purple eyes. He tried looking at the bright side.

The foxes still played a role in their crowd control and were stronger than the Dracula Hares. However, the normal blood foxes would be no match for the queen. Hares no longer ate vegetation, but rather feasted on the blood of the living. It was slightly terrifying. The breeding rooms now separately produced Grey Squirrels, Hedge Hogs, Racoons and Beavers. The beavers were harder to catch and had begun building damns in the various streams, which he had deepened to fifteen feet. He voiced his thoughts to kitsune, “Luckily, I have made a more stable ecosystem within the caves, but why do I always make such weird creatures. I mean at least your kind turned fine Kitsune.”

Kitsune chipperly supplied with a slightly haughty voice, “No need to be so humble Bastill. The ‘House of the Fox’ is absolutely flawless thanks to your guiding hand in our creation, with me of course at the peak of all. It was a painful experience to evolve, but as you promised you made the perfect warrior. There isn’t a single mistake.”

Kitsune’s proud talk was also quite touching to Bastill. He had felt so bad when he brought pain to that little fox, but he had solidly followed through on his word and hearing Kitsune’s testimony made him feel lighter with joy.

Kitsune always knows what to say to help.

The suggestions about the new introductions of each animal had come from input by Kitsune. With his finer understanding of the animal kingdoms ecosystem he always helped supply Bastill with efficient information. This is what lead to the developed ecosystem within the cave system.

He thought back on his first major error. It was simple with reflection how horrible spider mess had been. It had all been a huge mistake, but at last he had removed himself from the area and put the mess behind him. It was a mental load off.

I was barely ready for these adventures when they first came, but luckily, they are gone now. Next time the adventures come I will have more creatures and actual treasure for them to get. I can’t blame myself for this small error. As my master always said everything takes practice and I haven’t been a dungeon for very long. I will get better with each experience.

He had been so focused on creating creatures the first time that he had neglected one of the huge purposes of a dungeon. Giving out loot! He would fix this especially with the help of one of the three new abilities he had gotten when he leveled up. It was called Loot Distribution. He wasn’t sure why dungeons gave out loot.

Before he had become a dungeon, he had always assumed other adventures had hid it or the beasts of the dungeon had collected it from deceased adventures. He felt that the reason might be to lure people inside. Because dungeons would gain mana from the deaths. He had suspicions that due to the complexity of humans, that the mana received by their death would be quite large, but he didn’t plan on growing stronger by purposely killing humans. If anything he would be strengthening them and teaching them to survive.

Before the adventures left he had left them with a small collection of gifts to help appease their desire. He had given out some medium strength potions and an abundance of all the rare herbs he could produce and some jewels. It wasn’t much, but he had lost a lot of the old objects he could produce.

The jewels he had discovered while digging the tunnels. He had stumbled upon opal, diamond, amethyst, ruby, emerald, sapphire, jade, moonstone, and topaz. They seemed to have accept his peace offering when they left. He hoped they would give a good report. He liked the idea of being good at what he was now. Once more he felt that it was his human side of him trying to be proficient in his new vocation as a dungeon core.

Now, the real question is what to do next? There is still a massive hole. I mean technically it’s covered, but there are still too many pressing priorities.

He had currently finished the large-scale project of extending his dungeon to the other side of the mountain. He looked at remaining things to. He needed to continue healing his mind, figure out more about catalysts, try the new dungeon aura, recreate the Goddess of the Dungeon, and figure out the effects of being fractured, new abilities, leveling up usual, and the hole’s investigation. He decided to name it for now. He called it the Abyss.

Figuring out the effects of being fractured was also going to take a lot of time and wouldn’t help him immediately. He currently didn’t know what fractured meant. It could even have detrimental effects in the future. However, focusing all his time on finding out would put him back on his growth. So he wasn’t expecting to work on it anytime soon, but it would eventually need to be attended to. Healing his mind was a continuous effort that he always was trying. Just by continually moving forward and reflecting on himself helped.

The catalysts would take time and experience to figure out. A lot of them seemed to connect to his abilities. He currently knew that they could be used to create floor bosses. Other possibilities still existed. Did infusing a catalyst to a creature have to cause it to be a floor boss? Could it be used on things other creatures? The possibilities seemed endless.

He did want to recreate the Goddess, so he move it towards one of the larger priorities. He was also interested in just making more statues in general. They would help his creatures and he still deeply enjoyed the process.

Leveling up was always important. It would make him stronger. Increasing his mana absorption rate along with new abilities. He currently needed to make a third floor in order to rank up, but he wanted to make a better first floor before that. However, he was currently tired of making rooms.

The new abilities and the dungeon aura also seemed like they were important. They would better prepare him for the new adventurers. It was great to get new abilities, but if he didn’t learn the ones he had and better understand them then his worth would be very shallow depth with a large range. A deeper depth of understanding with fewer abilities would make him much harder to contend with. Currently he still didn’t have to many abilities though. He wasn’t worried about becoming shallow in skill.

In the end he decided to start with experimenting with his new abilities. His new abilities were Loot Distribution, Statue Copy, and Statue Animation, and the old level up reward Dungeon Aura. He had already used Statue Copy to create the statues to help improve the three additional breeding rooms. It was capable of copying existing statues for a mana cost. The remaining he hadn’t tired yet. Loot Distribution said that it was used to spawn treasure in chests and drops from killing beasts. Statue Animation said that it could be used to give souls to sculptures. While Dungeon Aura did not have any description.

He began to play around with the Loot Distribution. First thing he did was sculpt a Marble chest. It reminded him of his first sculpture under the tutelage of his master. He had ended up making a simple granite box, which he used for the rest of his human life to store his tools. How the times had changed. He glanced at the notification to check out the sculptures stats.

Sculpture Completed

Marble Chest

Effect- Holds objects, Openable top.

Well it’s effects aren’t very amazing… Then again it is just a chest! It serves its purpose.

He almost moved on to preceded to use Statue Copy on it, but he hesitated. It just didn’t feel completed. He looked at the poor little sparse chest. Inspiration struck him! He had jewels at his disposable and he planned to put them to use. He tried attempting to embed diamonds onto the chest.

Sculpture Modified

Marble Chest of Diamond

Effect- Holds objects, Openable top. Those who Guard it get a ten percent boost to all characteristics.

Well that’s more like it! It felt half-finished and I’m glad I followed that feeling.

He copied it eleven times with the Statue Copy Ability and put one in the back of the rooms, putting one every five rooms. Each one cost fifty mana to copy. Leaving him with just one-hundred and fifty. He wasn’t too worried since he made a little bit over one-hundred-sixty every hour. If anything, he was having trouble spending it all.

I should just make one room into the third floor, so I can level up. I will work on that after I am done experimenting with these abilities.

With the Loot Distribution Ability, he made it spawn jewels mixed in with healing potions.

I can’t tell if I am over doing it or not… They need to have a dungeon core guide book.

He altered it to drop one healing potion and one gem, while each chest that went further would give an additional gem. The reason for this is he planned to have his dungeon get increasingly harder. He set up the creatures so that the Hare’s came first, then Wenent as a boss, followed by blood foxes in the next rooms, with Kitsune as the final boss. This way the difficulty to get a chest further in the dungeon increased. He then looked at the option for the beasts drops.

Loot

Chests-Healing Potion:1, Diamond: x (1st chest 1, 2nd chest 2….)

Kitsune- Unassigned

Wenet- Unassigned

Blood Fox- Unassigned

Dracula Hare- Unassigned

Well I don’t really have a lot of things to give besides the jewels to give out. I guess I can always change it later.

He assigned a few jewels for each beast. In respect for Kitsune’s deceased wife, he had blood foxes drop rubies. The other gems were divided between the Foxes and the Hares. With the common creatures dropping one of the boss’s gems. The only duplicated gym was between kitsune and the chests, which used the diamonds. He would change it once he had a new treasurable item.

Loot

Chests-Healing Potion:1, Diamond: x (1st chest 1, 2nd chest 2….)

Kitsune-amethyst:2, ruby:2, emerald:2, sapphire:2, jade:2

Wenet- opal:2, diamond:2, moonstone:2, topaz:2

Blood Fox- Ruby: 2

Dracula Hare- moonstone:2

Well this ability is a lot easier to use then I imagined. With some actual treasure to offer I feel like a real Man… I mean, a real dungeon!

He decided to try using the Statue Animation. The only current statues he had was the Caring Mother of Fertility, which he had in each breeder room, and the Marble Chest of Diamond. He tried it on one of the Caring Mother of Fertility’s first. After activating the ability, he ended up sinking one-hundred mana into the project. The end result modified his sculpture.

Sculpture Modified

Caring Mother of Fertility

Effect- Creatures in this room have a greatly increased pregnancy, with a decreased gestation and maturing period. Now is run by a soul, can move around. Gives a bonus 1% to all creature’s characteristics for up to twenty minutes.

He watched as his statue literally came alive before his eyes and began to walk around the room and pet the creatures within. At first the creatures were startled but they finally settled in and accepted it after thirty minutes. They found out that leaving their room for long periods of time was suicide, while this new stone beast didn’t smell bad or attack them.

Well it seems to let statues have movement and it also seems to give additional features added on. The additional characteristics boost for twenty minutes is just enough for them to go out and eat. Haha, my master would probably shit himself if he could see the stats the statues, not to mention them gaining souls. I wonder if there is a chance he might wonder in the dungeon. Never mind that’s silly.

Craftsmen would never be found exploring the depths of the dungeon unless they decided to learn combat. Hardly any of them ever did. It was simply too dangerous. After spending a life away from battle, not many would attempt to dive right in to a dungeon. Unless they learned a crafting skill as a hobby.

He was pleased with the result and when his mana recovered enough he would give the remaining breeding room statues animation. It wasn’t fair to only scare the racoon’s half to death after all.

He turned his attention to one of the Marble Chest of Diamond’s. It was the very last one. He was curious what the effect of animating it would be. It didn’t really have legs to walk. With more curiosity in mind he put fifty mana into the chest using the Statue Animation ability. Immediately the chest opened its lid revealing its newly teethed edges and proceeded to hop around the room with Wenet. He decided to check the new notification that pooped up.

Sculpture Modified

Marble Chest of Diamond

Effect- Holds objects, Openable top. Those who Guard it get a 100% boost to all characteristics. Now with Teeth!

Well shit…

He watched as it proceeded to leave the room.

I made another monster… Why does this always happen to me? It better not leave the dungeon.

** ** ** ** Claire Estrand** ** ** **

A feminine yet firm voice rang out “, Report please now!”

The brunet’s cold tone was only rivalry was her own icy cold dark blue eyes. In her small petite office stood a small boy came in quivering “, M-mam, this just came i-inn”

He barely finished talking before he shakingly handed a scroll over. The women grabbed it and read the title, “Dungeon Status Report, From the Guild.”

She looked over to the shivering frightened boy,” You know I don’t bite, but stay longer, and that might change.”

The boy booked it from the room. Claire lightly laughed at the boy’s reaction. She had only meant to tease him. She didn’t know why she seemed to frighten everyone so easily.

What a sweet kid… Good the young group of adventurers have finally returned with their report. It sure took them god damn long enough. I know E asked them to be thorough, but damn. I wonder how the dungeon has been maturing. When the Guild heads over its development will grow even faster, which is all in line with our organizations plan.

She continued to read the report. She began to get concerned, “What they haven’t returned yet?”

Damnit, they haven’t even returned. What are they doing. This dungeon is important. The other dungeons cores are to well hidden or protected. The fate of this kingdom’s existence will depend on this dungeons growth in the future.

She continued on reading along until her face became very pale. Eventually she burst out loud, “WHERE DID ALL THESE GOD DAMN SPIDERS COME FROM?! WHO THE HELL WOULD RELEASE SUCH MONSTRONSITIES?!! It couldn’t be… Could it?”