Initializing startup sequence.

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Startup completed.

Checking Vitals.

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V1.0 Core health: Green AI Stability: Green Core level: 1 EXP: 0/10,000 Mana: 10,000/10,000 Monsters: 0/0 Highest monster level: 0 Traps: 0 Number of fake cores: 0 Number of secret rooms: 0 Number of treasure chests: 0 Highest Rarity of treasure: N/A Number of floors: 2 Number of intruders: 0 Accessibility to core: Very High Threat level to core: Very High Possible Threat: Very High Recommended rerouting dungeon pathways to minimize access to core.

I am vulnerable, I don't know why I am but I know that I can't let any intruders reach me. I only have 10,000 mana but some traps and monsters should be enough to scare away any intruders. I look through my monster options weighing the advantages and disadvantages. Of course, I'll create the strongest monster in the bestiary, the dragon, it'll cost a lot of mana but surely such a powerful monster will scare away intruders.

I select the dragon and a red highlighted version of the dragon appeared, it's not created but just a preview. In the options menu, I look at the different ways to change the dragon, there are many different dragons like ice dragon, fire, darkness, even time and cosmic dragons. At the top, the name reads: Dragon Hatchling. There is a drop-down menu for upgrades which I access; the next upgrade, Juvenile dragon, costs 50% more mana. The most expensive level of dragon I can make with my current maximum mana is the elder dragon, not the strongest but its power level is 8.

I try to create the but a message appeared.

Unable to create this monster on this floor

Why?! Alright if I can't create a dragon then how about a sin demon?

I select a demon, it's red highlighted figure appeared and I selected the "Sin lord" type of demon, a power level 10 monster, I didn't expect this monster to be more powerful than the dragon. The green figure changed shape as I change the type of monster to that of the demon of wrath, one of seven most powerful demons I can create. I try to create it but got another message

Not enough mana

Well, that's why I have to raise my maximum mana in order to afford this monster. I look at the mana cost for this monster a staggering amount, way more mana than my max

Alright, let's start from the bottom and see what I can make. I select a power level 1 monster and create it without any problems. Then I try a power level 2 monster but unable to create the monster.

Let's try it on the second floor

I was successful in creating a power 2 monster and tried a power 3 monster but was unable.

So the floor level limits the power of my monsters good to know, so if I wanted that dragon hatchling I must first have 6 floors, great...

Now that I know the limits of what I can make now I have to choose between the power 1 monsters: insects, slimes, fae, plants, undead, and beasts.

Insects and undead have bonuses if there are large amounts of them in a room and when creating them more are created at the same time, but they are weaker then monsters that are created only as a single unit.

I gave a lot of thought into what I wanted to first create my dungeon has 10 sectors, each sector can be specialized toward a specific type of monster but other types do not gain the bonuses and may gain debuffs instead. For example, undead and plants are exclusive if one gains a bonus the other gets a negative. But plants and fae empower each other gaining further bonuses. Plants are unique in that they boost other types monsters the others that gain this bonus are insects and beasts.

It was a tossup between insects or undead but insects won out in the end. If I can't scare away intruders with sheer power then I'll scare them away with swarms of monsters I must be the best Core to have thought that up!

I could further specialize the sector like turning it into a beetle sector or arachnid sector but for now, I'll keep it a general sector.

I fill the first sector with insect monsters but what will my second sector be? I don't have a lot of mana left I'll make some traps for now while I think about that.

With no mana left to prepare my defenses, I enter sleep mode. It'll take a week to fully recover my mana. If any intruders enter I will be awoken unless I deactivate the alarm before entering sleep mode but why would I ever want to do that?

Entering sleep mode...........

Intruders have invaded the seventh floor, after killing the floor guardian. These Intruders are strong, covered in black metal armor their forms seamless with blank features almost like shiolletes. They didn't speak at all even their armor didn't make any sound. The intruders enerted a flooded part of my labryinth but walked into the dark watery depths with no fear. Squids charged at them but they hacked them apart easily. These intruders slaughtered their way from room to room killing schools of fish, octopi, and sharks.

The intruders entered the Floor Guardian room, a massive lake with hundreds of tentacles squirmed under the surface. The intruders were faced with a gargantuan eye and a pointed shell. The Kraken reached out to the intruders wrapping its tentacles around them and squeezed to crush them. The intruders struggled mightily but with a squeeze, one intruder was crushed into a puff of smoke, then another. The last three intruders pushed the tentacles apart just enough to get a firm grip on their swords and slice through the Kraken's tentacles and ran toward the Kraken jumping from tentacle to tentacle as if they weren't underwater. They cut and slashed dozens of tentacles trying to make their way to the head of the Kraken.

Another intruder and caught a crushed into smoke, only two left. They were close to the head their swords danced around mesmerizingly and with a flash, they cut off a long arm of the Kraken but one of them fell prey to a crushing tentacle. With one more left the Kraken targeted all remaining tentacles on the intruder. The intruders sword flashed and spun around at blinding speed making sure to tentacle touched him and he charged forward when the seemingly relentless attacked ended, but the intruder was careless, having thought that all the tentacles were cut off he let his guard down and the last tentacle wrapped around the intruder, his sword fell out of his hands and the tentacle squeezed and broke him, a silent scream met the Kraken as it brought the intruder close to its eye and squeezed the last intruder into a puff of smoke.

I woke up, a week has past and now my mana is full again. Looks like the monsters have successfully deterred them aren't I great? I have successfully protected myself, everyone is too scared to intrude, but why is it that my status reads [Possible Threat: Very High], this is odd, maybe I should create more monsters? Populate my second floor? It's better to be safe than destroyed.

Now, what should I populate my second sector with?

I already have a swarm type monster, and since it's close to the entrance their number should be enough to deter intruders, but I should create more monsters if only to make a good dungeon. I am the best Core and i want to make the best dungeon, but how should I do that?

I know! Let's alter the dungeon hallways!, Let's undo this hall connecting sector one to sector three...

with a puff of magical particles, the long hallway disappeared.

Now let's remove these ones and make this a dead end... oops I didn't mean to remove that one.

Replacing the hallway drained ten times the amount of mana as simply removing them.

Maybe I should start planning out my dungeon instead...

Once I was done altering the hallways from all one hundred rooms in the sector I was left with only enough mana to make two boss rooms.

Let's make this one a boss room for a Room Master...

Doing that the room grew as if eating at the dirt and rock between the rooms and hallways until the room was twice as big as normal.

And let's make this one for a Room Master as well

as always there was a green highlight before the alteration or creation. I noticed the highlighting turns red if the location was invalid, such as the space between the rooms and hallways.

Now that I have spent most of my mana Lets check my vitals

Possible Threat: Very High

WHY?! No one is intruding! I did great the monsters have scared all intruders away! I should run a diagnostic I think my status is broken.

Initializing Diagnostic

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Diagnostic complete: No issues found.

Then why does it still say: [Possible Threat: Very High]?!

Initializing Diagnostic

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Diagnostic complete: No issues found.

*Sigh* It still says it... I give up, I will just ignore the status it is clearly broken. Let's just go to sleep and refill mana

Entering sleep mode...........

The five intruders Slew the great kracken and proceded onward toward the eighth floor, a boiling hot place of magma tubes the rooms are more circular like a magma chamber. The walls cracked open just enough to let tears of molten rock trickle down to light the place.

The walls cried tears of glowing hot liquid and the cave breathed sulfur and toxic gas as the intruders slaughtered their way to the floor guardian. They dodged lava flows and used protective magic against the poisonous air. The intruders came upon the Sector Lord, A massive firey Salamander made of volcanic rock and magma. saliva-like lava dripped from the salamander's mouth as it snarled and spewed fire at the intruders. Smaller, baby, salamanders crawled over loose rocks and swarmed toward the intruders.

The intruders cast magic that froze the land and killed the baby salamanders then charged forward toward the Sector Lord and landed blow after blow cutting deep into the rocky salamander. The salamander bled lava and shook its body spraying lava over the intruders burning their featureless armor. One of the intruders cut the tail off the salamander only to have grown back in an instant and slap into the intruder sending him flying into the wall. Another intruder impaled the salamander through the middle and into the rock below, nailing it in place, the leader of the intruders walked up to the struggling salamander and beheaded it.

The intruders were like walking avatars of destruction and death, all in their path died until they walked into the floor guardian room. A massive room with a ceiling as far and vast as the sky, in the middle of this room was a small volcano where a deep growl was heard. The volcano erupted with a roar and a huge dragon forged from the heart of the volcano flew toward the intruders spraying the ground with lava like a rainy downpour from its rocky wings; veins of magma flowed out from the root of the wings and outlined the scales and underplating of the dragon. The dragon landed in front of the intruders breathing a torrent of lava...

Intruder alert!

What! Why? The dream was just getting to the good part! Who is dumb enough to challenge me?!

Looking at the entrance I see a group of people, a male human, Clad in scale mail and scaled leggings stained red, stood at the front of the group. He wore a steel helm with an open face revealing his stern face and brown eyes. A scar decorated his cheek that added to his roughness. His sword was well made from the claw of a giant chimera and his shield had spikes on the rim pointing forward made from the teeth of some monster.

A female elf clad in red monster hide stood in the back. She held a bow adorned with feathers and leaves with an arrow knocked. She wore black boots made from monster leather. Her long golden hair was braided she kept her bangs at her eyebrows and out of her green eyes.

"Finally the Lord gave the green light to enter this new dungeon, took him long enough!" A dwarf complained. He wore black chitin armor with a red cape. His helm is made from a horned skull what looked like a wolf's skull, the jaw of the skull had been removed so as to not reduce vision while the snout of the skull acted like a visor. The dwarf had a clean shaven face with beady black eyes.

"Shush! I think I hear monsters, probably insect type" The elf warned, putting a finger to her lips

"EEEK! No! No bugs, no spiders, Tallen can we just go to a different dungeon?" A human female complained. She wore a black spider silk robe with red trims and a matching pointed hat. Her raven black hair fell to her waist and was tied with a red ribbon. Her face had a softness to it that could be described as cute and her black clothing made her green eyes stand out.

Hehehe, see they are too scared, nothing to be worried about.

"This is a new dungeon, mapping this place out will get us a lot of gold. We took this job and we are going to complete it" The human male said.

"Yeah, we can't back out of this now, Yeara" A lionkin male agreed with the human male. He had a reddish mane and claws on his hands. He wore an open vest and had a well-toned body. Although his body was completely covered in fur his arms did have more hair than humans. He wore brown leather pants and matching leather boots. His hair was short and he had the ears of a lion that pivoted toward sudden sounds. His tail flicked in anticipation as he looked at the door to the next room.

WHY?! Just go away already! Enough, attack my monsters, chase them out! Sending a mental command a swarm of roaches began moving from the next room.

"Here they come, Yeara ready AOE spells" the elf calmly said.

"EEK!" The human girl began casting a spell.

Just go already!

The battle began with my full confidence, however, the group easily dispatched the monsters.

What?... no, no this can't be happening they should be dead, my monsters should have won that, why? Why did they lose? Alright, I'll create a Sector Lord, that'll beat 'em!

I access my beastiary select the insect type and scroll through the monsters looking for a suitable power 1 monster.

I think I'll pick this one

I select a giant pill bug, several monsters appeared, their figure highlighted with green and I turn it into a Sector lord, one of the monsters grew in size, effect particles showered the area and a few more monsters join them popping into virtual existance with a spray of the same effect particles. I create the monster group and create several more normal monster groups in the room to gain the swarm bonus for my new Sector lord.

I'd like to see them kill this monster! My new pride will never be defeated!

As the intruders entered one room I sent monsters from the adjacent rooms to attack them from behind but no matter how many I send they still defeated my monsters.

"Man these bugs are weak!" The male dwarf said

Don't say that they were my pride, they were that is, my Sector lord will kill you all.

The intruders gathered the magic cores from the dead monster, their sorceress, the human female, used a spell to riped them out of the bodies all at once. They walked into the hall but the elf female stopped them

"Hold on, something here doesn't seem right" The elf female closely examined the area.

"A trap?" The Human male guessed.

Damn! How'd they see the pitfall there?

"Yeah... I'm certain of it, probably a pitfall trap" (Elf female)

"let's go around it" (Human Male)

The intruders walked around it along the wall and entered the next room. A room full of spiders.

"EEEEEKKKK!!!" The human female ran out of the spider room after taking one look at them

"Yeara!" The human male yelled after her

"NOOOOOO! No Spiders! No no no no no no no no no no no no noooooooo!" (Human Female)

"Yeara! We need your spells to deal with the swarm!" (Lionkin male)

"NO! No spiders!" (Human Female)

I should make more spider rooms. Maybe I should have made the sector boss a giant spider queen.

"Dammit! common guys lets calm her down"

The other intruders ran after the human female

See nothing to worry about. I always knew my monsters would protect me.

The human female ran then suddenly the floor gave out and she fell giving out a scream

"""Yearaaaa!""" the group shouted seeing her fall.

she's still alive, damn!, Maybe I should have upgraded the trap into a spiked pit.

It looks like she has broken her leg too bad it didn't kill her.

"Damn fool!" The dwarf male cursed at her while the lionkin male lowered a rope.

"What would you have done if that was a spiked trap or worse!" The lionkin male chided

"I'm Sorry" The female human said with tears in her eyes.

"What do we do Tallen? Continue? We still have a mission to complete" The elf female asked

The human male examined the human female's leg taking a long time to think.

"No, we stick together, if one of us falls then we all retreat; we are the Crimson Divers after all

The intruders walked back to the entrance through the rooms they have already cleared. The monsters still haven't respawned. When the intruders left I got a message

Intruders successfully chased out, 50 exp awarded

Huh? ONLY 50?!