Five minutes later, the boar’s corpse broke down into particles, the kind similar in appearance to when monsters and items were formed but in reverse. From the looks of it, it took the dungeon some time to turn things into CP even when it had died.

“How much CP did we gain?”

“Quite a lot. Precisely 310 CP.” I could hear a trace of excitement from the ever-flat tone Lorelei; she reacted more if it concerned her dungeon well-being. “We can gain more if we exchange this monster core.” She took a monster core out of nowhere and presented it to me.

The monster core was similar to the one I purchased through the menu but was the size of a softball with a more contrasting color than what I used for the golems. If I compared it to the one sold in the Dungeon Menu, each one would cost about 100 CP.

“No, let’s keep it for now.” In the future, I might make stronger golems. The reason that the smaller cores sufficed for the clay golems was that I intentionally made them human-sized. Bigger, I doubted that those would suffice.

“Well, that’s up to you. So, where’s the reward? I prefer sweets. Of course, another blueberry cake slice is fine as well.”

Hmm. She’s easy to please. Despite being a Dungeon Core and rather sly inside, she’s rather tractable. I purchased another set of [Small Blueberry Cake Slice (5 CP)] and gave her the promised reward.

Our total CP after this battle was 6,980 CP after deducting the 300 CP for the five golems and another 15 CP of food expenses. It was a rather CP-neutral situation I’d say. Unfortunately, the boar hadn’t stayed in the dungeon long enough to give us even a single CP.

On the flip side, since now we had golems to expand the dungeon, there was no longer any reason to delay developing the dungeon. And while I was at it, I inspected the dungeon’s condition; most of the first floor had an average height of about five meters.

Given that the first floor was located deep underground, it should, strictly speaking, be called the first underground floor. But since there was no floor above it, I decided to stick with just the first floor. The term might change later, however.

First thing first, I got to tidy up the entrance to cover up the small holes produced by the goblin and kobold. A place like this reminded me of landmine fields left by the past wars in my world. With [Programming], it shouldn’t be a pipedream to make something similar, albeit with lower effectiveness.

That aside, a superfluous amount of clay had piled up in one corner of the dungeon. There would be more than enough to make a dozen or so golems, so there was no need to continue digging clay any longer; our priority now would be expanding the dungeon.

“Say, if I were to dig behind the Core Room in a deep, straight line, would it reach an open ground?”

Seemingly knowing my worry, Lorelei answered, “That should be fine. The land around is higher than where the dungeon is located. I could tell when the golems were about to reach such places. You need not worry.”

“Sounds neat.” Now that I checked the menu again, via the Dungeon Management catalog, I could see where the cave would lead to.

In that instance, I ordered the five golems to start mining the wall behind the Dungeon Core. Yet however hard they punched the wall, no crack could be seen, and instead, the golems’ hands were starting to break down. I’d made sure that the walls around weren’t bedrock and were made from dirt and soft stones.

“So hard?” I commented, scratching my cheek. Yes, the clay golems were made of clay, but still…

“Well, naturally. The dungeon’s walls are imbued with my power, so it is harder than normal.”

“Uh, then can you do something about it?”

“Yes, piece of cake. Give me a sec…” Soon she gave an “okay” sign, saying, “…Should be fine now.”

The golems continued punching and digging through the wall. Although the progress was slow, they worked as if not knowing the word “rest.” I entrusted Lorelei with overseeing their works, having the other inhabitants help move the dirt; it should be useful later.

Meanwhile, I didn’t remain still, opened the Item Creation catalog, and purchased a [(Large) Iron Pickaxe (25 CP)] from the tools section. When it finished materializing into a large pickaxe, so heavy that I almost tumbled catching the thing, I began imbuing it with [Programming]; I had an idea to increase the destructive power of an object without making it disposable like the stone bullet.

“Hmm? what are you up to now?”

“Hehe. You will know soon.” I called one of the golems and gave it the pickaxe.

“Hmph, acting all mysterious. What’s there to hide? Anyway, I know that you have done ‘something’ to the pickaxe,” Lorelei inferred, giving me a skeptical look; she had been watching what I was doing so she likely knew.

The pickaxe bearing golem raised the pickaxe high in the air and swung it onto the wall. While making a loud noise of metal hitting stone, the wall collapsed and left out a hole a meter deep and wide; dust and dirt flew about the cave near the golem. This was something that wouldn’t normally result from a normal swinging of a pickaxe.

I, who was confident in my ability to retain a poker face, suddenly found my face twitching unconsciously as my hands curled into fists. The result was much better than expected; [Programming] was amazing!

“The impact reached this big thanks to the golem’s strength and the pickaxe being able to produce ten times the resultant force. But… won’t there be a cave-in if we’re not careful?”

I got no response whatsoever, so I glanced at Lorelei, finding that even she couldn’t help but reveal a trace of surprise. How atypical…

“Magic pickaxe…? No, your Vocation it is.”

“Indeed. Though I’m afraid that the shaking caused by it may bring about unnecessary trouble if not careful.”

“Hehe.” Lorelei put her hand above her chest, boasting, “As I said, I will know when such things are about to happen. The condition of this dungeon, I know better than the back of my hand. Besides, the wall imbued with the dungeon’s power won’t collapse easily, and I will personally oversee this matter.”

“Good. That’s for the best.”

“My, oh my. But my service is not free.” This sly girl…

Later, I purchased another four [(Large) Iron Pickaxe (25 CP)] and imbued them with [Programming], before distributing them to the golems. Now the construction of the dungeon should progress without a hitch.

I switched my attention to the traps at the entrance. Even though the smaller holes could be used to make landmines, the larger holes left by the golems were too big to use as such. Nevertheless, I’d figured out one type of trap that would be perfect to use: pitfall trap.

More about this, I intended to have pretty standard stuff where some of those pitfalls actually led to tunnels. The real trick was that those tunnels led to separate small rooms where we could put either traps or monsters, maybe even both. However, we were about to face enemies that should be eliminated at all costs, and time was of the essence here, so I’d better come up with something deadlier and simpler.

For this reason, I made the pitfall traps camouflaged with a thin layer of dirt and rock that were imbued with my [Programming] where they would collapse whenever something of a certain size stepped upon them — free of charge. Below, I placed sharp spikes that were purchased through the menu; I couldn’t be too stingy on traps.

Bottom line, a code-imbued trap was more versatile since I designed them myself, even though the effectiveness remained to be seen. But since I wanted to do some research, I also added some [Pitfall Trap (100 CP)] that were premade by the dungeon deeper inside so as not to mix them.

Next, for the landmine traps, there were no such premade ones in the Dungeon Menu. There was obviously something similar that used magic but using them for this would be an unnecessary hemorrhaging. Instead, I purchased more iron ingots and turned them into plates.

I then set a condition for the plate to explode when something pressured it to a certain degree. There was no need to be overly complicated in making these simple traps. Even if I was curious about what would happen if I were to add gunpowder or TNT inside the plate.

Anyway. As a test, I had one of the dungeon rats step onto the plate. The rat sauntered to the planted mine, unbeknownst of what it would experience. Suddenly, the ground exploded and blasted the rat asunder, leaving nothing but a speck of red dust behind.

“Landmine acquired!”

“Your intention aside, for you killing this innocent little child is cruel, I say.” As though a ghost, Lorelei commented behind me.

“Eep— Whoa! Again, why are you always appearing out of nowhere?”

“Don’t pick the little things. You’re the one that should get used to it.” She fluttered her hand in dismissal. This girl! I’ve had enough! No more.

In an attempt to get back at her, I pinched her cheek. Mm. Squishy.

“Ow. What was that for?”

“Nothing.” I thought she would be more responsive, but that didn’t seem to be the case. “Anyway, since when are you close to rats?”

“Not only them.” She spread her arms wide. “All the inhabitants of this dungeon under my control are essentially my ‘children.’”

So Lorelei is a mother now… I gasped in thought. That’s a step up. My imagination ran wild about her… but I didn’t think she would be a good mother figure. All her children would be deadpan emotionless if they grew up—

“Don’t wander your mind on something weird.”

“I’m not, alright! So, what about the digging progress on your side?”

“That’s what I was about to inform you. The pickaxes that you enchanted are about to break; it appears that the immense power that your Vocation brings is not truly without cost.”

To withstand the immensity of the power brought about by [Programming], without high durability to cope with its destructive might, it would soon chip away. Either because of the condition I put in the pickaxe that broke it bit by bit, or the damage simply came from the resulting force. Initially, I got a bit carried away and treated those pickaxes like in a certain “survival game” I used to play but had forgotten that higher efficiency meant that the durability was lowering faster.

“Can’t do much about it.” I shrugged my shoulders indifferently. “Unless I use better pickaxes, then it should be impossible to add another set of code to strengthen its durability.”

“That so? Well, the room we dug up already had a length and width of about ten meters each and a height of about five meters.” That’s quick! “But what should we do about this dirt? I could absorb it…”

“No, that would be a waste. Just place it inside the Artificial Realm. Who knows what use it will present later.” I might look like a miser hoarder, but who cares?

“Fine.”

I examined the dungeon through the Dungeon Management catalog to see what could be further enhanced. Their invasion was around the corner; I needed to prepare adequately. There was nothing wrong with being overly prepared than the vice versa unless I wanted to get myself killed for being a miser. Hmm? I already did, but in a “good” way; the old adage “a penny saved is a penny earned” couldn’t be truer.

Although what I’d prepared for this invasion had been aplenty, it still felt lacking. Facing a contingent of Rowan and his henchmen wouldn’t be enough with just this. Even if I were to make more golems, they were, per se, not Rowan’s opponent since they were unlike the mindless hybrid boar.

“Well, in case you need me, I will be in the Artificial Realm decorating the place,” Lorelei said before making a portal and waltzing away.

The Artificial Realm, huh? …Oh, yeah! My laptop! I took my laptop from the Artificial Realm and began searching. While there was no internet in this world, I accidentally downloaded Wikipedia’s pages because of a college project.

“This… this can be used!”