The core, eventually, managed to calm down. The voices mostly seemed positive about the gnome, and she did leave pretty fast, so it was probably fine.

... probably.

Regardless, the core had something new to look at, so it focused to call up information on the monsters it could summon, then the Clockwork Spyder.

Monster Description Goblin A basic humanoid monster, it is intelligent enough to guard specific locations, but also cowardly and weak. Unlocks additional Traps, and allows more advanced trap combinations. 10MP Giant Rat A basic beast monster, it fears fire but will attack anything which enters its lair. More powerful than the other first tier monsters. 10MP Skeleton A basic undead monster, it is difficult to destroy, and may restore itself before intruders leave the dungeon. Weaker than the giant rat, but can guard any location, comes in greater numbers, and knows no fear. 10MP Viper A basic stealth monster, it is the weakest of the first tier monsters, and only marginally more intelligent than a Giant Rat, but its bite injects a dangerous venom. Unlocks poisoned variations of certain Traps. 10MP Giant Crab A basic Aquatic monster, capable of fighting underwater. Unlocks construction of water features within the dungeon. Nearly as strong as the Giant Rat, but comes in lower numbers than other monsters. 15MP Clockwork Spyder A basic Mechanical monster, incapable of fighting. Improves trap functions, and operates mechanical monsters. Unlocks siginificant trap improvements. 15MP Clockwork Spyder

A simple construct made of basic clockwork, with four manipulator arms and four grasping legs. It uses dungeon mana to wind itself, and can hold a short charge, allowing brief excursions outside the dungeon, enabling an extension of dungeon senses and manual gathering of small objects. While extremely poorly suited to combat, it allows resetting, alteration, re-aiming, and even manual triggering of Traps, due to high intelligence.

Clockwork Spyders serve as the brains of mechanical dungeons, and are required to operate more powerful Mechanical monsters.

Unlocks more advanced traps and Triggers. Unlocks unique upgrades for mechanical traps.

After the way its traps had been embarassed, the dungeon had to admit, the idea of new, better triggers was very appealing. After all, it might get something that the gnome wouldn't be able to notice so easily that way!

While the core was considering these things, however, something unexpected happened. Something else entered the dungeon.

Fleeing in apparently blind panic, a large buck charged into the dungeon, slamming into the first curve, leaving a smear of blood behind itself. Charging further down the passage, it nearly passed over the pressure plate unscathed, but one of its back feet barely pressed the trigger, and the arrow traps fired, catching the deer in the rump and throat. Already badly injured, it continued a few feet, nearly entering the first chamber, before succumbing to its wounds.

The core rushed its attention over, and watched as the deer was absorbed by the floor, leaving little trace behind, and nearly cheared when it received a message,

Intruder Slain! The dungeon has slain its first Intruder, and ended an invasion! 1DP awarded Material Absorbed DP Gained Buck x1 5DP Gained Steel-head arrow x1 1DP Gained

The core was delighted, it seemed today was its lucky day! It called up its current status to see how many DP it had.

Unnamed Dungeon MP:2/10 defeated invaders: 2 Untyped Dungeon MP Regen: 2/day DP: 16

It had sixteen DP in total! That was incredible.

The core paused, considering.

Wasn't its MP Regen higher last time it looked? It turned the issue over in its mind, determined to work out why it had gone down, before settling on a conclusion. It no longer had the gnome inside the dungeon! Clearly, there must be a benefit to keeping people inside the dungeon. It tried to determine whether it had any way of keeping someone trapped- after all, if they couldn't leave, it could get the benefits, without the risks. Unfortunately, it didn't have any ideas, so for now it had to leave that idea behind. Instead, it focused on DP. It knew eactly what it should purchase.

DP menu Core Reinforcement: 10DP Core Strengthening: 15DP Dungeon Material Advancement: 15DP Dungeon Lighting: 1DP Dungeon Construction: 5DP

The dungeon could purchase Core Strengthening or Core Reinforcement(it had promised itself it wouldn't buy another level of Material Advancement right away, as much as that appealed to it), and of the two, core strengthening seemed like the correct choice. Sure, reinforcement would let it summon the Spyders or Crabs, but right now it wanted more space and more traps, so getting mana faster was far more important.

Eager to grow, the core purchased Core Strengthening, and checked itself once again.

Unnamed Dungeon MP:2/10 defeated invaders: 2 Untyped Dungeon MP Regen: 4/day DP: 1

Its MP Regen had doubled! It would be able to grow twice as fast, and place twice as many traps! In the back of the cave in room, the red gem set into the wall vibrated in its setting, before going still. Its red became deeper, and it grew slightly in size, refining to sharp lines and a square cut. When the core noticed the change, it was dleighted, the new appearance tickling its vanity. It thought that the gem would look beautiful in flickering torchlight, and it gave in to temptation, purchasing Dungeon Lighting as well. All at once, the dungeon filled with warm light, as wooden torches grew from the walls, held in place by stone bracings. The core faintly sparkled in the light, and it stared for some time, before realizing the gnome had taken all its treasure!

Alarmed that its most expensive trap was disarmed, it turned its attention to the chest, only to realize that its treasure had been returned and the string inside, reset. Certainly, it thought, the gnome wouldn't have done that, and it doubted she even could. Perhaps, it reasoned, these treasures were part of its dungeon, and would reappear each time they were taken? That was certainly a relief, it wouldn't have to pay for new trasure each time someone wandered in and took everything.

Once again calming, the core settled in to wait for mana to trickle in once more.