It had been five months now since Dorzath had arrived on this tiny rock and decided to grace it with his presence. Five months of slow improvement, of having to hold back his new instincts of wanting to kill anyone who got near his core. Five fucking months.

It was taking too long.

He’d been told that this would happen. That the restlessness of constantly having to hold himself back would get to him eventually. So he’d been giving himself little rewards of emotion and frivolous spending like the over expensive upgrades he’d purchased, and that incident with Invim.

Nevertheless, this sensation of feeling like he was constantly chained by responsibility had been building for too long. So that night when the adventurers left, he went on a spending spree.

He developed his second mini-boss, this time for the fourth floor. A pangolin, both because they were the first monster he’d created that genuinely vexed the challengers and because he disliked scorpions and most of their higher tiers involved a high degree of stabbing power, something Dorzath was reluctant to introduce to his Dungeon due to the severe lack of armor present on the challengers.

Another variant, this time also earth attuned. Interestingly this one had naturally been generated, it had evolved within the Dungeon naturally without any interference on his part. It seemed the challenger's general reluctance to engage them had meant they’d rapidly gained experience, and after being exposed to the mana-rich environment for so long this one's affinity had slowly been shifted so it was more in line with its surroundings. This process of a monster naturally gaining an affinity actually rarely happened in nature unless a monster found a mana-rich natural resource.

Nevertheless, this one had simply gotten larger than its brethren, and due to the fact that it was also at its Jobs level cap, its size was actually fairly considerable. Once Dorzath then put it through the process of becoming a mini-boss it then grew even more, to the point that it was at chest height with a human male. It was still fairly useless in combat, however.

The process had given it an evasion skill, however, which Dorzath supposed could potentially have some combat applications. ‘Roll’ Just increased the speed at which it rolled as well as increasing its maneuverability. Furthermore, its ‘Trap affinity’ skill had also been enhanced and seemed to be where a considerable amount of the energy for the transformation had been funneled to.

The tier 1 skill had ranked up into a much more useful skill. The tier 2 skill called ‘Natural Traps’ had some interesting effects. It didn’t require much control from the user which was useful considering it was a monster. The skill made the natural environment around the user naturally change to become traps in nature or change the environment into something trap-like. It was fairly frequent in occurrence but had limited effects. Nevertheless, Dorzath was still very impressed with the skill. It seemed to be invaluable for a close-quarters fighter, as much of close combat was dependent on the environment and your opponent making the smallest mistake could have a large impact on the fight.

He looked into the big black eyes of the dumb creature looking up at him, the bright glow of his core reflected in its eyes as though it actually comprehended him. He was saddened by the fact a skill this useful was wasted on a monster this stupid. Nevertheless, this fight would prove to be a considerable obstacle for the challengers. Unlike the previous mini-boss, this one wouldn’t be a test of strength, or at least it tested wits more than combat prowess.

The boss chamber would have a long rock corridor, leading to a wide-open room. The room would be twenty meters tall, with a steep slope of sand one side facing the challengers as they emerged from the tunnel. The Pangolin would be waiting at the top of the sand slope, looking down on the challengers as they entered the room.

The trick to this fight would be time. The longer the challengers took to reach the Pangolin, the more its Natural Traps skill would begin to affect the environment, and the harder it would be to take him down. He supposed that ranged attackers could take advantage of the Pangolins limited ability to move, but they would be surprised by his ability to move courtesy of his Roll skill.

Overall Dorzath was happy with the floor and the mini-boss and decided to move on, but not without giving his newest addition a name.

/Set ‘Dungo’ as the mini-bosses name?/

‘Yes’

Then the only thing left for him to do was to descend.

The mana cost for levelling up had risen further still, but thanks to the tier 4 levels pushing his mana capacity higher still as well as his tier 1 to 3 mage background he was in no danger for several more levels, of needing to stockpile mana. Eventually, however, he was going to have to start using LE as well when he descended but for now, he was more than glad to make up for the difference with his mana as LE was comparatively harder to acquire and therefore rarer but by no means rare. Dorzath just liked to have a stockpile saved up in the case of an emergency. The frantic battle against the Abomination had left him feeling entirely too vulnerable afterward, not a sensation he was willing to repeat.

He relished the feeling of his core growing slightly firmer and smoother at the process.

There was also a considerable size increase this time as well, as he’d finally reached level five, the first of many milestones. It was for this reason that the supply of fresh dungeon shards was still firmly flowing. As Dungeons got more powerful their cores increased in size. This also meant that when the Army devoured a planet and discovered a powerful Dungeon controlled by the opposition, they would be able to split it into hundreds of shards to be shared with the lower-ranking members. In a way, Dorzath reflected, the propagation of the Dungeon species was similar to that of certain plants.

The fifth floor would follow on from the previous floors in layout, but with the monsters being created at the middling levels for their Jobs. This would hopefully introduce a new layer of difficulty for the approaching challengers. In addition, Dorzath also changed the previous two floors in terms of layout, adding the occasional rocky chasm in the rooms, leading to a steep mana cost as it massively increased the size of the rooms. At the bottom of these chasms, Rockshaser wolves prowled, similar to Pulvi in species but obviously much smaller in size and stature. This would potentially add a layer of lethality to those floors which hadn’t been there previously.

The wolves could also potentially somehow crawl out of the chasms, but they were designed for firmer surroundings and so would struggle on the sandy dunes.

Furthermore, as an incentive to enter into the chasms, Dorzath created small chunks of silver ore placed randomly within. He wasn’t sure as to the relative value of the metal, but if his studies had taught him anything, a sure-fire bet to make when dealing with humans was that they loved shiny things.

He liked this new design, challengers who would fall into the chasms could potentially find themselves with enemies all around as the Rockchasers surrounded them inside and the scorpions descended the walls on either side.

Dorzath also threw in a little suggestion to the minds of the pangolins present in these three floors that they should throw sand and rocks down on any challengers unfortunate enough to fall down the gap. It was the result of the new skill he’d recently unlocked, possibly as a result of constantly trying to mentally communicate with the non-boss monsters in his Dungeon. ‘Plant Suggestion’ allowed him to plant a suggestion in someone or something's mind.

Dorzath had deliberated about whether learning the skill was a good idea or not. He had never picked a Job which enhanced the mind and so had never received similar skills before. Ultimately however he decided it would be required later when he would inevitably be dealing with hostile elements entering his Dungeon and as he was now, it was the first skill which he could actually use effectively to combat challengers.

The skill was just that, a suggestion. It couldn’t make someone do anything they would otherwise never do, but it worked very well against monsters who had simple minds, as well as potentially humans who already had a hate for each other.

Nevertheless, it was another Skill he could use, while the large majority of his powerful skills, including his one tier 3 skill, were useless for the moment while he lacked a real body. Dorzath supposed that he could eventually train this new core body into learning how to manipulate runes, but that just sounded like a lot of effort.

For the fifth floor, Dorzath was able to make the rooms even larger than before, with the first room on the fifth floor being almost four times as large as the average room on the fourth floor. Throwing in some mirage stones embedded into the walls, a trade Dorzath had made just the previous day for the base blueprint of a family of birds which had taken roost in the dilapidated church above him, and the walls made the room seem endless. The dunes stretching out forever when entering the fifth floor made it seem rather enchanting, or so Dorzath thought.

Dorzath also used the mirage stones on all fourteen of the desert-themed rooms for the previous floor. The result was that when a challenger would enter the floor, Dorzath thought it would seem like they had entered another world, with only the wooden door behind them and the door ahead of them signifying anything else about the world that they had entered. Of course, the mirage stones effect only worked when someone was sufficiently far away, as the challengers approached the walls, it would be revealed to be once again just a rocky wall with shiny stones embedded within.

The stones could actually be taken out of the walls, but doing so would cause the entirety of that floor's monsters to head to the offender's location. The mirage stones, after all, were powerful natural resources that would rarely come into being in a lower-tier world such as this. Simply giving them away like that seemed … wasteful in Dorzaths eyes. Nevertheless, a tier 4 would be able to successfully flee the floor he estimated, and he would wait in glee to see if anyone that powerful would dare to try to steal one of the stones.

Oh, he gave himself shivers just thinking about it!

#

Berant was the first down the stairs that morning. Femmet had hogged the mini-boss to himself all of yesterday, saying that it was too difficult for the rest of them.

Screw that. He was a Guard wasn’t he? A Wall Defender now, and granted his new skill Hold Fast worked better with other people and when he was actually protecting something, but either way, he was a Tier 2. Femmet had no right.

He went off to the city for a few years and came back with a shiny sword. So what? Berant had been the one to stay behind, to deal with the growing population of the village and the nagging of the elders.

The death of his father last year had been hard. Harder still had been filling his shoes. What right did Femmet have to come in and act like he was the one in charge?

He wasn’t an idiot though. He’d seen the wounds Femmet had had when he’d limped back into the village, the first time he’d fought the beast. Even with those fancy potions from the city, the wound was still ugly. So he’d brought back-up in the form of Katrin the Ice Mage of the town who also happened to be Invims little sister. She still looked up to him, even though she was a genius who he had no doubt would quickly surpass him.

They strode into the boss room, and to her credit, she barely flinched when the gate came down with a clang. Berant hadn’t actually seen the boss before, so he was shocked when a pile of rocks got up off of the ground. Femmet had told him it was a big wolf but that was an understatement. It glanced at Kat, but Berant wasn’t having it. This was his fight, she was just here for backup.

The sound of his spear tip smashing against his new shield, formed from the black iron Femmet had sold to him from this very boss, brought the beast's attention firmly back to him. It breathed deep and the growl it produced smashed into him like a physical blow, sending his feet sliding back along the ground. He held fast though, and he remained upright.

This thing looked slow, it looked heavy, heavier than him. If it got on top of him he would die. If it managed to push him down he would die. Okay. Berant shifted his weight. ‘Let’s try not to die’ he thought to himself. He wouldn’t be counting on any support from Kat, she hadn’t managed to make any spells yet so the best she could do was get in close to something and then cover it in ice. Still very impressive but dangerous, as her body was weak.

The battle began with the beast leaping onto him, jaws wide and aiming for his head. Berant had to take a step back and catch the beast with his shield while keeping the battle low. He forced the weight of the thing downwards, so the leaping beast was sent crashing to the floor as he manipulated its body with the flat edge of his spear and a shove from his shield.

It was slightly stunned as the sudden impact sent it crashing to the floor. The earth around where it had been knocked into the ground was softened like clay, lessening the impact and allowing it to get its feet under itself quickly, but during that time Berant had slipped his spear down the side of the beast, resulting in long but shallow cuts.

The things underbelly and sides was where it had less of that black-rock like stuff. Femmet had told him that was where it was strongest, well that and its paws but Berant had no intention of striking it there.

It was whimpering now, the cuts had sealed up quickly but not before releasing a large amount of blood that had spread and reached even Kat’s feet. It darted forward again, this time clawing at him with its paws. Each impact hit him with greater weight than cutting power as the earth was clinging to it like a newborn, turning its reasonably sized paws to anvil sized ones, but either way, he stayed upright. His spear darted in again, once to prick its eye and once when he thought he spied an opening to its neck, but wasn’t fast enough to capitalize on it.

The battle stretched on, with Berants new shield accumulating scratches all the while, and dents as the impacts from the beast grew heavier as it attached the earth to its strikes. Berants breathing was stable though, his one tier 2 skill shining through, Greater Endurance. He could go a week without sleep and still fight off monsters from outside the village. Nevertheless, he struggled in fights against enemies of his own level of strength.

He had no active skills and could fight better than any man in the village but it wasn’t enough for him, who’d witnessed the power of the Priest of Life and his father in action.

He was lasting longer than the monster however, it grew weary quickly as it was forced to divert more and more energy to healing. Over time the sheer lack of blood in its body would tire the thing to death, but Berant had done that before and the System gave you skills based on your actions.

He wanted to end this fight now. His spear and shield proficiency skills let him know that he could bait the monster. He let his shield hang low, no longer protecting his upper body. The wolf wearily took steps towards him, changing into a sprint at the last second before leaping at him, the earth having taken up a life of its own, and wrapping around the beast's front half in a mockery of armor.

Berant dropped his stance at the last second, his body lining up to his spear and shield which were already in position. The beast's jaws were wide open as it received the spear in its mouth before it plunged through the weak resistance of the roof of its mouth. The feedback he received from the vibrations as the spear squelched its way into the beast's head told him it had reached the monster's head. Nevertheless, Berant kept the spear where it was until the thing had smoked away, not wanting to be caught off guard by its incredible recovery power.

Then, like magic, he got the notification he was hoping for.

#

Dorzath watched with amusement as the tier 2 man danced around. It seemed he was rewarded for his efforts to defeat Pulvi, and in contrast to his normally solemn appearance it seemed when he celebrated he went wild. Although not as wild as a demon, Dorzath gave him a 4 for effort.

With that, the start of the delving day began. The 1st floor, as always, was hectic as people took iron and wood home with them with the wolves acting as the first regular source of meat most of them had ever had. Dorzath hadn’t decided what he wanted to do for his 6th floor, but maybe it would be something to do with food, enticing the humans down to the deeper floors as he gained more LE the further down they ventured.

Interestingly enough, halfway through the day, a man in a full suit of armor descended into the Dungeon, setting off alarm bells as he was revealed to be a Tier 3. Dorzath began to charge up one of his weaker destructive artifacts in preparation for him trying to harvest his core.

He made it to the fourth floor fairly easily, blitzing through Dungo in one massive leap which bypassed the traps and the room in its entirety. A gauntleted fist burst through its head and upper torso, annihilating it completely. Neither Dorzath nor the man stuck around to see what it dropped after it dissolved, however, and the man continued his breakneck pace towards the bottom of the Dungeon.

The barely finished rooms after that didn’t give the man pause either, and it was only when confronted by the soft glow of Dorzaths core that he finally stopped. The man must have sensed something, maybe a skill which warned him of his impending danger as a cloaked artifact waited out of his sight, for a command from its owner to activate.

Either way, the man continued on with his motion, which thankfully turned out to be just placing his hand on the dungeon core. He turned into a blinding red light before vanishing from Dorzaths Mana Sight.

The sigh that Dorzath released then was almost audible, with the Dungeon giving a slight tremor in response. The challengers within the Dungeon had barely entered the 4th floor, and so it was likely Pulvi would be able to be respawned before they arrived, slowing down the challengers and giving Dorzath some breathing room.

Dorzath deactivated his artifact, stowing it and his bag of other treasures in his bag underground beneath his core. He prepared to develop his Dungeon further. He knew it was a poor decision and it was unwise, but he felt what had just transpired was unacceptable.

He knew full well that as weak as this world was there were still tier 3 and 4 forces on the planet. Even with his bag of Artifacts that would have been entirely too close if that challenger had decided to eliminate his core. While it was obvious that he was here for some other purpose, Dorzath had no idea what for and had no way of finding out. He could be waiting for the core to develop further before harvesting, or it could be that he wanted the core for himself to develop limitless resources. He didn’t know and he couldn’t find out.

While he wanted to preserve his identity as a normal core partly for his survival and partly to have the villagers keep entering him, that tier 3 had frightened him.

Dorzath had built 14 rooms on the previous floor, each one 5 kilometers in length and width. On this floor, he could build 18, excluding the boss room which he would merge two rooms together to form. Each of the desert-themed rooms was going to be 20 kilometers in length in width. In addition to this, his advanced measures also included bringing the level of the monsters from middling tier 1 at level 5 or 6, up to 9 or 10. Dorzath felt the Tier 3 had torn through his monsters too quickly, and while he was initially planning on having middling tier 1s on this floor and upper-tier 1s on the next, he felt he had to increase the strength of his monsters much faster than that.

It was unacceptable what had happened to him today, it wouldn’t happen again. If someone that powerful was allowed near his core again, he couldn't wait to see what they would do, he wouldn't. He would simply obliterate them from this life and play detective afterward.

The tier 3 had simply run past most of the monsters on the 4th and 5th floors, so Dorzath put in choke points in front of some of the doors between rooms. Assembled in front of the door were several rows of scorpions, with Rockchasers hidden in front. On either side were steep rock walls which the pangolins would once again drop objects down to land on the enemy's head. This wasn’t a ‘suggestion’ in the mind of some of the monsters, but some monsters which were created here, for that very purpose.

In addition, Dorzath had seen how it always chose the shortest path on the upper floors of 2 and 3, the Tier 3 must have spoken to the villagers and asked for information on what was the shortest path. Dorzath didn’t want that to happen ever again.

It was expensive, just a measly 5000 LE, but by broadcasting his intentions in the right way for the floor as a whole Dorzath had finally got the right upgrade he needed.

It effectively ‘randomized’ the floor layout for the 4th and 5th floor for each person. So anybody entering the 4th floor could either go through all 14 rooms or just 2. Of course in the event that a hostile entity was entering his Dungeon, they would of course go through the maximum number of rooms possible for each floor.

It was at that moment when Dorzath began to feel someone mentally … poking at him. He quickly realized it was his newest mini-boss Dungo who had just now respawned, well before the challengers would have entered his boss room and wondered what was going on, thankfully. The creature had a message for him.

It wasn’t words, not yet, the base monster wasn’t powerful enough to be forming words and even with the upgrade to its body and mind it still wasn’t there yet. Nevertheless, there was a feeling that Dorzath could sense from the young monster, and the feeling was somehow communicated to him, the monster had something to show him. His Mana Sense was quickly moved over to the monster, looking over at what he had to show him.

The creature was holding a pouch, looking at it in confusion.

Dorzath gave the monster a mental nod of acknowledgment at its very welcome gift. The monster seemed very confused by its arrival, which possibly meant the Tier 3 human in full armor had managed to let himself get robbed by the Pangolin and he hadn’t noticed. It was rather curious and made Dorzath want to look into the possibility of developing a Job chain of Pangolins which would be able to steal challengers items, but that was a very quick way of making challengers never want to enter your Dungeon again.

The Pangolin was able to exit the door to its boss room and arrive in the core room via another upgrade Dorzath had purchased, which allowed for transport anywhere throughout the entire Dungeon from any of the doors. This upgrade was considerably more expensive than the previous ones, but its cost was decreased by the fact that Dorzath had purchased the previous ones.

Dorzath mentally shooed the pangolin back to its boss room, before quickly absorbing both the pouch and its contents in one smooth wave of action, he’d finally reached level 100 of the Skill and its performance was eons away from what he started with.

Unfortunately buried amongst the notifications of the objects he’d absorbed was a rather troubling one.

/10 Divine Coins received - Divine Coin unlocked/

Shit.