'One more to go'.

Core was close to unlocking his first non-skeletal defender. Which was both a good thing and a bad thing at the same time.

On the plus side, he could now utilize the pudling's passive skill with his water assets. On the negative side, he didn't have the defender capacity to spawn one, unless he got rid of one of his other defenders.

The in-between issue was that he'd have to place the water asset in his dungeon which cost mana. Core already had an issue with completing all his current plans with the limited amount of mana he regenerated. Leveling up had increased his mana regeneration by 2 points to 8 mana per hour.

Core opened his Dungeon layout tool and pulled up the tunnel expansion plan. It had been revised multiple times before he finally settled on his current design. The second test of his current little tunnel gave him some insight into the design, but he deemed it too small for an accurate test. His current plan would add an additional twelve segments, with more pathing options and dead ends. Excavating twelve sections would cost him 60 mana, meaning he'd have to wait for ten hours to refill enough mana to add all the segment and have mana leftover in case he needed to resummon his defenders.

Core copied his layout to another template and opened up his Assets list. The layout was made before he had access to the newly unlocked feature. Using the fresh template he experimented by placing water tiles in his tunnels. The water only reduced movement speed, but that also applied to his own defenders so he wasn't as thrilled to put them down. He could, however, place the ground spike trap below the water tile. He tried the same with a pitfall trap, but that wasn't a valid option according to his tool. Still, the reduced movement speed could mean that the placed trap would be harder to evade, and linking three of them together in a tight space should prove fatal for any invader.

Next up he experimented with placing torches around the tunnels. Spaces void of light seemed to be a lot darker compared to the spaces from where there was a light visible. Remembering how the last pudling had run for the light his Core emitted into the tunnel, it would seem likely that the presence of light could be used to attract invaders to go into the wrong tunnels. Alternating between the torches and the glowing moss he found that the light from the torches could be seen from around corners and the moss light only illuminated just enough to define the layout.

Core was so engrossed into his dungeon planning that he didn't even see the notice of a new invader entering his dungeon. The newest invader had just passed the collapsed tunnel. It walked on four legs and was covered in black fur which would make it hard to see in a dark place like his dungeon. Luckily Core could switch between normal and dungeon vision and easily spotted it. Red eyes scanned the tunnel, while sharp fang protruded from the creature's upper jaw. Core concluded that they would deal an considerable amount of piercing damage if it managed to bite down on its opponent. To bad for the invader that all of Core's defenders were off the skeletal variant, which made them resistant to piercing damage.

The same plan as last time was initiated by Core. Snake would sneak up and spider would ambush the invader. After the initial attack snake would then bind the target, so they could get the kill. In case the spider would be detected by the invader Core would have snake initiate instead and spider would have to attack without the damage bonus from its passive skill.

Suddenly the invader's ears twitched and it perked up its head. Core told snake to stop moving and lay still as flat as possible. The snakes passive only reduced the noise from movement and not remove it completely. The invader's senses probably picked it up as it now looked down the tunnel. Skeletal creatures are the dead version of the previous living creature so by having it stay still Core hoped to trick the invader into thinking the bones on the floor had been there for a long time. Dungeons absorbed corpses but Core gambled that the invader might not know it was inside a dungeon yet but still in a cave with a regular, not undead, snake bones.

Not picking up any more movement the invader's ears dropped back down, while sniffing the surrounding air. Apparently not picking up anything apart from the smell of ambient dungeon mana, it resumed its path deeper inside.

Core ordered the snake to resume its movement but this time a bit slower as to not alarm the invader again. Two very welcoming notifications popped up as the invader stepped onto the tunnel section hiding the spider.

Spider's Trapdoor has activated, it has successfully remained undetected. Current skill level: 1.

Current % progress: 40 / 100. Spider's Ambush has activated, the next attack will do 150% damage. Current skill level: 1.

Current % progress: 20 / 100.

The invader twisted its body as it saw the spider fly out of its hiding spot on the floor. Spider always aimed for the vulnerable neck but adjust to bite down on the creature's flank as it twisted away. Quickly it bit down again making the most of its passive attack. Both attacks only did their normal damage as no vital parts were bitten into. The invader snapped its jaws at the spider but failed to get a direct hit as it repositioned on the creatures back. The creature bucked around and managed to throw the spider of its back towards its original hiding spot. Having received two heavy hits and another partial bite the invader was weary of it jumping at him again and backed away slightly to create some distance.

With its focus on the opponent straight ahead snake had gotten close without being noticed again. Spider feigned a jumping attack and the invader took another quick step back, right in the range of the waiting snake. Snake shot forward and slithered up the creature's leg and onto its body. Unlike the pudling that got bound before it seemed creatures with four legs were much better suited to deal with the binding tactic. The additional legs made it hard to fully immobilize the target. The more flexible body also made it a lot easier to use the fangs and its maw to attack compared to the pudling which only had its arms as offensive options. Core made a mental note of it, so he could make better strategies in the future.

The invader bit the snake with little success as the snake was now fully wrapped around its upper body slowly draining it of life. Having the better position the snake bit back with fangs of its own, though much less deadly it still chipped away at the invader. Changing tactics the invader started thrashing around on the dungeon floor trying to lose its attacker but the undead snake held firm unconcerned with its own life. The invader's moments gradually became slower as all the thrashing around had drained a lot of its stamina. Core wasn't sure how long he should keep up the snake's attack as the thrashing around reduced a good amount of its health points and defeated defenders didn't receive experience points.

With the invader now slowed down and not thrashing around anymore, the spider rejoined the fight. His two defenders then made quick work of taking their target down.

Shadow Wolf Level 1 has been killed by Experience gained: 28. Current experience 67 / 125.

Dungeon Points gained: 2. Current Dungeon Points: 26. Progress gained: Understanding of archetype +20%.

Current % progress: 20 / 100. Undead archetype experience gained: 34.

Undead archetype current experience: 149 / 1.000. Skeletal Spider experience gained: 17.

Skeletal Spider current experience: 54 / 50.

Skeletal Spider has advanced to level 2.

Skeletal Snake experience gained: 17

Skeletal Snake current experience: 39 / 50. * Skeletal over type has been applied to Wolf ( Shadow).

Core ordered his defenders back to their starting location before checking on the notification. Snake was in pretty bad shape with only 20% health remaining and multiple of the defender's ribs were cracked, chipped, or completely broken off. He'd have to rely on his other defenders for a while as he waited for the natural regeneration to heal up his defender. Core could dismiss and resummon the snake, but he needed the mana, and he still had two more defenders and traps to protect him. Pulling the notification back up he focussed on the part that said his spider had advanced to level 2. It gained some more base damage and health points but other than that nothing changed which Core found it a bit disappointing but more power is never a bad thing.

Next up he checked out his new defender.

Shadow Wolf, archetype. Wolves are found all around the world often living in packs led by an Alpha. Their strong legs and sharp teeth make them deadly hunters.

The Shadow Wolf is a subspecies that has evolved a dark fur color making it hard to spot in dark areas like dense forests and caves as well as during the night. Skills:

Shadow .

Locked .

Now that was a new feature Core hadn't seen before. The defender would most likely unlock the skill when it gained enough level just as he did for his features. He tried to select the locked skill but nothing happened, so he selected the Shadow skill instead.

Shadow Shadows are one with darkness. They feel comfortable in the dark and have adjusted to living in dark spaces.

While in a dark area and not engaged in combat, a Shadow can only be detected by magical means.

While in a dark area, damage and movement speed are increased by 10% + 2% per skill level. Current skill level: 1.

Current % progress: 0 / 100. Due to the lack of the Shadow Wolf's fur, the detection effect is currently for this defender.

Another good passive effect for a dungeon defender but also the downside of it being an undead version of the original. Core really wanted to see his new defender in action but that would have to wait until he had the mana to spare to replace one of his current defenders. Most likely he'd replace the goblin since it had only average statistics and no active or passive skills. This also made the goblin a lot cheaper to summon since the more powerful a defender the higher the mana cost would be. Core could only imagine how expensive a really powerful creature would be if they ever came to his dungeon, and he would actually manage to kill it. Core doubted that the combined power of all his defenders would be strong enough to take down something really powerful. He hoped it would be a long time before something like that happened. According to System, his ambient mana would only spread if he got more powerful so as long as nothing that dangerous lived nearby he should be fine for a while.

It was still raining outside and Core wanted that last pudling to show up. He waited for another hour staring outside his cave but nothing moved in the rain. Snake was still recovering from the last fight, so waiting wasn't all that bad.

With nothing else happening he once again pulled up the Dungeon layout tool and started adding in his Assets to liven up the place and make it more interesting. He tried to hang up a root section to hide one of his passages but the option for placement stayed red. Moving and turning the roost section to another wall made it glow green indicating it could be placed just fine so which part was he missing?

He opened up the Assets page and skimmed the descriptions again for the root section. It clearly stated that he could hide something behind them so why not a tunnel?

Perhaps the tunnel was too big to hide, and he could only hide small things but how does he make a small tunnel?

Still looking over his Assets list he found his answer in the shape of a doorway. A doorway would block most of the tunnel only leaving a small area to enter through. After placing the doorway the root section immediately turned green, and he placed it down. He turned off his dungeon sight and found the doorway indeed very much hidden by a thick layer of roots. He made a note to put down more of the roots ones he had enough mana for it. Core wasn't planning on hiding something behind all of them but having only one set of roots in the entire dungeon might be a bit too obvious.

He placed down some water, a doorway, the root section, and another doorway with a trigger. Implementing all the assets would cost him an additional 60 mana. Linking up three of the floor tiles of the Ground Spike trap would also coast an additional 60 mana. After that, he'd still need to put in the light sources but seemed to be the cheapest part of his plan. But that would have to wait for another time since he just got visitors.

Warning: An invading party has entered the dungeon!