"Pssst, hey Fang, what kind of monster is it?" I whispered loudly, but thankfully my stoic boss remained silently kneeling.

"How would I know? I'm not from the Hellscape! Try to Analyze it, concentrate on the question, 'what is that?'" he whispered back. Turning my attention back to my baby boy, I got a message.

Elite Volcanic Demon A close quarters combat specialist, these demons are forged from the dried blood of fire and excell at the front lines as the spear-tip of any fighting force.

Woah, badass!

"Hey buddy, do you have a name?" I asked politely.

With his head raised slightly, he addressed me, "Nay Father, call me what you wish." Lowering his head back down, me and Fang tossed names back and forth.

"What about Blackey? No no, too racist. Hm, how about... Bob!" I asked Fang.

"Are you an idiot? I accept the fact that we want people to underestimae YOU, but don't let Daggerhead share the same fate!" He complained.

"Oh and Daggerhead is a better name? That sounds stupid. I know! How 'bout Sparky?"

"He's not your dog! He's your boss! He'll be the only thing standing between you and those who want to KILL you. Give him a better name." Stomping off, Fang went to go stand beside the pool while muttering to himself.

Tch, he's right. Hmmm, he seems like an honest guy so something like Valor? No no, tha won't do. Let's see... he's big, black, pointy, intense and quite stoic. I think I've got it.

"Hey big guy, does Edge sound like a good name to you?" I asked. Looking up, the big demons burning eyes grew a tad brighter.

"This one believes that Edge is a worthy name. Thank you Father." Edge knelled even further this time.

"Okay enough with the prostrating Edge, how about you stand up and stretch a little bit? Me and Fang got some work to do," I said.

"As you command, Father." Now standing, Edge walked towards the pool where I thought he was going to take Fang's spot in observation. I didn't expect him to step in it and act like it was a jacuzzi. Huh.

"Hey Fang! Get back over here you bat out of hell, we got work to do!" And now that there was light in the cave, I could see the lupine legs similar to Edge and the long scaly tail that whipped behind him when he moved. He truly does look like a monster, gotta love em for it.

"What." He stated simply.

"Hey don't be like that! You can call the big guy Edge for now on, that's a good middle ground right? Similar to Daggerhead and simple like Bob. So cheer up, okay?" Loosening up a little, Fang ran his five fingered death claws over his ears and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Er, sorry about the mood swing. I get a little touchy about my ideas," he shrugged.

"Oh don't tell me, is that an insecurity issue I sense?" Squinting, Fang stared back and appeared his usual self.

"Oh ha ha. Let's just get back to getting your floor ready, okay? How's your D doing?" I don't know if I'll ever get over any sentence involving my D without automatically thinking...of...other biological parts.

"Well, after the pool there it went down to 870, but now it's looking like around 880. Why's it climbing back up so quickly?" I asked.

"It only seems like its going up a lot because you have so little points. But really, the reason for the sudden growth is the life force being given off by all the new plants and insects in here," he stated.

"Woah, wait back up. Insects?! Where?!" I whipped my vison back and forth but couldn't see any bugs.

"Calm down, just concentrate on all the life in here. Take a deep breath and don't focus on anything specific, just observe in your minds eye the world in this room. That's it. Now, what do you see?" He asked softly.

Following his instructions, I cleared my mind and I can tell it gets easier each time. I don't breathe, but I understand what Fang was telling me. By simulating the act of breathing in my mind, I calmed down and I felt as if I was looking everywhere and nowhere at once. I could see each blade of Ember Grass, named so because they remind me of embers in a flame. And after awhile, I noticed something particular.

"Holy shit Fang, are those ants? Do you know what kind they are?" I asked.

"Hmm, I think they're called Fire Ants?" He sorta told/asked,

"Did you just come up with that on your own?"

"...Yeah." He said with his shoulders slumped a little. Oh well, give a dog a bone I guess.

"That's actually not a bad name, Fire Ants they are then!" With chest puffed out slighlty now, Fang turned back to me and continued with telling me how to do my job. In a good way of course.

"Okay, so you have a basic environment going on but what we really need to start doing is using the rest of your energy and really flood this bad boy with your pressence. It has to push beyond just this room, it has to push far enough until we find the surface. It might take a few days because you'll probably take a few breaks to recover your energy, but we can't just start carving out rock without knowing where to go. With that, I'll leave yout to it." Walking back towards the pool, Fang left me in the dirt to do what Dungeons do, spreading my influence.

I would be lieing if I said I wasn't a little jealous I couldn't be over there with them. As soon as I said that, a long ropey limb of burning blood sprouted out from the pool and reached towards me, placing me near the edge on a floor with a shiny black surface I'm guessing that came from where the blood touched the earth. Instead of feeling nervous and afraid though, it felt exhilarating to fly through the air like that!

"Woooo! That was fun! Hey Fang, how'd I do that?" Fang sat looking back and forth between me and the pool before scooting back a few more inches.

"Well the best I can explain it is that since this room is a part of you, it will respond so. For instance, you wanted to be closer to over here, right? Try thinking about being near the roof and see what happens."

Excited I looked up and imagined how cool it would be to see everything below me from up there. Before I knew it, one of the Bone Vines reached down and the tip of it opened up to show a maw that suctioned onto my spherical body before slinging me up near the top. After it got me as close as it could, the rock flowed downward to cradle my body as it slowly flowed back into the ceiling, bringing me along with it like a rocky hammock until I coudln't go any further without sinking into the ceiling itself.

"Hey Fang! I can see my house from here!" Laughing, I felt really good. Until Fang opened up his sorry excuse for a mouth.

"Hey Carl, how's your D?" Uh oh. Almost fearfully, I checked and began wailing right afterwards while that bastard laughed!

"HOW?! I'm down to 500 Fang! Five. HUNDRED! Are you telling me that just moving around took all that energy?!" I yelled.

"Well to be fair, I told you that your energy was fairly low and manipulating rock and liquid flame with just your will and energy isn't cheap you know!" He yelled back up. Almost crying as I did so, I willed myself to be brought back down. A hole opened up and I fell through before my trusty steed latched back onto me, almost gently placing me back down before returning to its default state.

"Huh, that didn't cost but a few points. Does asking my creations to move me around not cost anything?" I ask.

"No, it's typically how other Cores move from room to room. As you can tell, it costs a lot to just do simple things. That's why it's so important to spread your presence. The more the earth surrounding you is touched by your presence, the easier it is to manipulate and therefore cost less. Now, how about you go about doing what I told you before you started screwing around," he said with a sassy tone in his voice.

Tch, whatever.

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It's been about a week since I've started the process of Expansion, as Fang calls it. I've noticed a few things. The most obvious thing is that Bloodfang gets easily bored. He and Edge have been whacking each other back and forth in a constant tug of war sparring match that makes me glad I don't have a body made of flesh anymore. I saw Edge shear away a chunk of Fangs scales and flesh with one swipe of his huge skull sized hands. Just remembering all the blood and the squishy sounds it made when bouncing off the floor makes me shiver.

Besides that, the Influence of the Boss Spawn is more pronounced as burning bushes with thorn like glass sticking out of it began to sprout in between several of the more matured saplings that were becoming what I call Ash Trees. They resembled the color of ash and the bark was smooth and cracked in many places where a small amount of fire would leak out and slowly harden as it travelled down towards the trunk where it's thick redish roots would reach towards the pool. Pieces of Bark that were covered in too much glass would peel off the tree where it fell and gathered around the trunk where Fire Ants came and went to collect the material for their Black Throne on one of the far walls. The Fire Ants were growing steadily and their dark bodies were slowly growing that shiny black glass that was so predominant on most of the living things in here.

Worried that they would get too strong I brought my plans to Fangs attention.

"So you see, if everything on the fire side gets too OP, how will my Ice creatures do?" I asked after explaining my ideas for growth.

Blinking, Fangs mouth was slightly agape before he decided to answer me, "That's a great idea! An artificial struggle would be just the thing to boost your growth rate and help evolve some of your stronger monsters. I don't see it being a problem, as you remember the cost for Frozen Souls were a lot more expensive than the Blood of Fire, so if anything I think the time you took to expand was just the thing to even out the playing field," he said excitedly.

"Hey Edge! Get over here! Carl's got a good idea but I want your opinion before he does it." Emerging from the pool where he was recovering from his last bout with Fang, edge slowly started making his way over. I noticed some of the shards that were around his head were broken and some looked like they combined to make a stronger version while round black studs covered certain spots like additional armor where it had previously cracked.

"Okay Edge, here's the scoop. Hellscape is a place where I'm assuming everything is always fighting, right?. But right now all I see is one side in here, so I was thinking about introducing the Ice Spawner in the boss room as well," I said.

Visibly tensing and with fists clenched, I thought Edge was going to say it was a terrible idea but was instead surprised by his vigor, "Yes! Summon forth the enemy so that we may clash for all eternity! I have been feeling a sense of bloodthirst ever since being born and it hasn't gone away since. Now at the thought of the Frozen Ones it sings and roars in my veins! Do IT!" He yelled.

Nervous for the sanity of my first boss, I quickly complied, hoping that Fang wouldn't get another busted jaw.

Congratulations! By creating your first monster spawn of this type, the monsters and fauna that naturally develop from it will be stronger than its other counterparts! Boss Spawn By creating a spawn pool in your core room, it's been upgraded to a boss spawner!

Uh oh, that wasn't according to plan. A loud groaning noice could be heard and on the far opposite wall from the Blood of FIre began to crack and fall off, revealing a smooth texture of several different shades of blue mixed together. One chunk at a time, the wall kept peeling until a huge smooth blue canvas was replaced and where some spots were such a bright blue that it appeared to be glowing.

Frozen Souls, I thought. Soon after thinking that, those bright blue spots began spreading out and moving, like the reflection of stars on the ocean surface. The wall groaned loudly and began to vibrate, cracking in many places. Where it cracked, trickles of water began to flow outwards, collecting on the ground until a pond began to form. Cracking further, more water began to spew out and the pond below grew bigger while the edges near the wall began to visibly chill and freeze. Slowly the Ice spread along the wall and began encroaching towards the center of the pond. Where the water began to touch the Ice, a little kept freezing while the rest kept flowing, introducing unique shapes and structures forming as if growing from the ice.

Except that wasn't too far from the truth, as these small mounds of Ice began to change shape and sprout like flowers, except they were petals of sharp, thin Ice that you could almost see through. Colums of Ice near the more heavily flowing cracks began to branch out near the base in sharp angles, like frozen roots. Their long shafts twisted and lopsided but still the flowing water can be seen running down the middle where they spread through them like blue feins, forming small buldges out from the sides to what appeared to be the beginnings of branches. As the pond grew outwards and the Frozen landscape began to develop, a very small and bright light could be seen travelling down the water towards the center of the pond where it sank to the bottom.

"Hey Fang, did you see that? I think one of those Frozen Souls leaked from the wall!" I whispered, trying not to get the attention of Edge who's entire posture was focused at the other end of the room.

"Yeah, I saw that. And I think Edge did too," he whispered.

"The enemy has appeared, it is almost time." Slowly but surly, Edge began making his way over until he was at the edge of where the Ember Grass was. Waiting. For what, I have no idea. That's bullshit, I know why.

"Hey, Fang. We're about to have a Boss versus Boss fight!" I said excitedly.

Before he could respond, a large almost dragon like creature began clawing out of the water, it's pale claws digging gouges out of the Icy rim, pulling it's angled, dark blue snout and body slowly out of the water. The water dripping from its body forming blue spiked plates down from its forehead to it's tail like blue quills. It's long snout hackled upward showing off it's jagged frozen teeth and it turned it's hateful electic blue eyes towards Edge, before opening and emitting a roar that shook the walls of the room.

"Oh this is going to be awesome. Hey Fang, I don't suppose there's anything like popcorn for us Dungeon Cores, are there?"