I try summoning the other 16 books I was given. Maybe one of them will be of more help? Lilly did say she included books that would help me learn to read. How I could ever understand those squiggly lines is beyond my understanding at the moment, but maybe there’s hope to find in another book?

I become more adept at handling the books I even discover there’s more writing in the books than I thought. They seem to be made up of a thin sort of... wood? According to my senses the writing is on a soft form of wood. There are many layers with writing on both sides of each layer. There are even a few pictures but without understanding the writing I can’t make much sense of even those. Without help I don’t think I’ll be able to figure this out any time soon so I call in a few of my Fae. I figure that the oldest ones would be smarter and I even summon Illona. As a Tier 2 creature she might be helpful. That fact Buttercup is my oldest Fae had nothing to do with me deciding on summoning the oldest Fae to help me with this. Not one bit.

Illona was the first to arrive since she’s right next to me. The others, Buttercup, Fiona and the other four I used to call ‘failure numbers one to five’, Fiona was number three but I even managed to remember her name, came in and I explained I needed their help to find a way to learn how to read these books. The seven Fae each pick a book and sit down to try and find a way to read them.

I finish looking at all the layers of the book I had before shifting my focus to see if anyone is even close to figuring it out. Sadly, they all look like I feel so no help from them so far. If one of them does manage to find a way, I’ll reward that Fae by learning his or her name even. Unless the one that figures it out is one of the three that I already know. I’ll have to figure out some other reward if that happens.

I pick one of the nine books left to check but I can already tell this one is just as impossible to read as the last one. Still, I struggle on. Maybe somewhere deep inside is the key needed? It’s not like I can do much without mana so I might as well try.

I’m not sure how much time has passed but I hear a hissing sound coming from where one of the Fae sits. All of us look up from our books towards the Fae in question. Well, the other Fae look up, I just shift my attention since I don’t really have eyes to look up with.

“What was that? That didn’t sound like you?”

The Fae looked a bit confused and excited at the same time as he began to explain.

“Well master, I opened this small book and I sensed a trace of mana. I used my senses to try and locate it and found it gives off very weak mana fluctuations. I touched the page and heard the sound. I think this is a magic book that teaches you what the squiggly lines sound like.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because There’s only one big version of a squiggly line on this entire layer. See, the other layers have other sorts of lines drawn on them and I remember from the other book I tried to understand that there was this sort of squiggly line in there too.”

The Fae quickly turn the layers to show the rest of us. He was right. Each layer had a different sort of squiggly line drawn on it. Illona quickly chimed in before anyone else had a chance to speak.

“Master, if this is true then maybe the key to understanding these books is just to learn what each sign sounds like and then use the combination provided by the books so you can hear what it says? Maybe even the size of the books is the key? I noticed that the smaller ones seem to contain less signs then the big books. A smaller book might be easier than a big one?”

I try to form my mana to make it a bit more solid so I too can touch the page that gave off the sound. Again, I heard the same sort of hiss.

“Excellent! You might be right.... Winde”

There, now he got his reward. He’s no longer ‘Failure number 4’. He better be pleased. Even if the theory provided by Illona is incorrect I still feel like he deserves something for finding a possible key to our understanding of the books.

“Go back everyone. I think I can manage the rest alone. Lilly did say that once I had a second floor, I would begin to attract attention. We need to make sure we’re secure in our home and the others need your leadership.”

They all accepted my order and left me by myself so that I could learn the secrets of reading alone. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against the idea of my Fae learning to read. I just want to be the first of us able to do so. It’s my solemn responsibility as their creator.

The next few hours were spent learning all the sounds the symbols meant. After that I tried to combine the sounds in order shown in one of the smaller books. I think it might have worked. The sound was a little bit different than what it sounded when I spoke it but it was very close. I guess it must be hard writing sounds as a symbol so something was lost when doing so. I simply had to learn to compensate that flaw.

I didn’t get much further however before I noticed that I now had a lot of mana. Learning to read took a long time. I wondered why it was so much harder for me to read what the books had to say compared to what the system told me. I had always understood my blue boxes. Why did the books make things so much harder? Silly books, the system is clearly better at making itself understood.

With a lot of mana to spend I was quite eager to get back to expanding. The first thing I did was to copy the size of the first room I had made on the first floor and connect it with the bottom of the room my stairs was in. At 9 meters in length, 5 meters in width and 3 meters in height the cost ended up being 54 mana.

I remember that for the first floor the same room had only cost me 40,5 mana. I remembered that thanks to my ingenious solution to avoid the half point in cost by making another identically sized room at the same time. So, Lilly was right. It was more expensive to expand down here than up on the first floor.

Still, that only proves I’m growing as a Dungeon Core. As a talented Dungeon Core, I feel quite proud of myself at this moment. I’m no longer a young inexperienced dungeon of only one floor. No, I have proven my wisdom by expanding down towards the unknown. I confirm the decision to build the room and wait for it to finish. A few minutes later it does so and a box I’ve been expecting pops up.

Room detected further away from the entrance than your current 'Core room'. Do you wish to move 'Core room' now or delay the move for 1 day pending additional construction?

Move now / Delay

Just as expected. I knew this moment was coming but when it’s here I’m a bit nervous. It was so painful last time. Still, I’m a two-floor dungeon now. I can’t be afraid of something like this. I pick the option to move now. Lilly did say it would take weeks to finish the second floor so delaying for a day doesn’t help me. I didn’t get to justify my decision anymore as the pain interrupted me and once again caused me to lose consciousness.

I wake up again still feeling the after effects of the move.

Still, I’m now on the second floor and if my plan works, I’ll only have to move one more time on this floor. I do however discover that my small pedestal I’m located on and the books scattered around my core room moved with me into this new core room. I quickly check where I used to live and now it’s just an empty room. No books or pedestal anywhere up there. So, anything in my Core room moves with me. Good to know but there’s nothing really that I gain by knowing that.

The ‘Core room’ is just where my little pebble, I mean my dungeon core, is located. As long as it’s safe I don’t really care what’s in here.