The Lightning Mage didn't come back that day. Through her own ears I knew this was mostly due to her… architect?... needing her opinion on various details. She also spent a good amount of time simply mumbling to herself, wondering how to get the missing key.

Her only 'credible' ideas were 'checking the top of every tree and behind every rock' and 'kill monsters till one drops the last key'.

You know. 'Cause I definitely didn't have a theme.

At that point the sun had been down a while, and she had to wait till it rose again.

It also snowed a bit in the middle of the night, though it quickly melted once the sun rose.

Huh?

Uh, right! I believe the Tribe mentioned something about winter preparation a couple of times.

Not that they'll have to worry about winter while in my Dungeon…

During the night I leveled up some more, and I reached the level I intended to 'stop' at, 2 hours and 32 minutes before dawn.

Personal Status Level: 25 EXP needed for level up: 48,100/48,100 Additional EXP: 1,453,852 Mana payment for level up: 0/9,000 Mana: 0.5/3,000 Mana regeneration: 1,050 per hour Floors: 8/13 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: Disabled Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

Double mana regen! Yes! I've been stuck at 525 for so long now! I could see the mana tickle in on the Status screen. Every 3.4 seconds 0.25 mana would be added.

It was amazing!

I didn't intend to stop leveling up till I reached the next bottleneck, but it was time for me to pretend to be done leveling.

As I didn't know exactly what message the Lightning Mage would get, when I sent her a 'request', I had decided to 'request' something simple, which there wasn't much to learn about anyway.

I would 'request' permission to make a Hidden Magma Pit trap.

Aaaand… go! I mentally commanding the Fake Core to send my 'request'.

Nothing happened. The Lightning Mage hadn't gotten a message to wake her from her slumber.

…

So… How do I actually do this? I truly doubted that her willing unconsciousness had anything to do with my failure.

Dungeon God: You have realized that you are (kind of) the god of your own world.

You know, System: That is your most used answer.

So, what does it mean in this context?

I guess I need to make a Rule to do it. But didn't I already have a Rule about the Fake Core acting like my Real Core? Can you show me the description of that one again?

Rewarding Fake Core: The Fake Core is able to give personal rewards and teleport sapients out of the Dungeon on behalf of the Real Dungeon Core.

Ah… That was more restrictive than I remember it being. But back then I thought it was all it needed to do.

Do I even need to make a completely new Rule? Can I not just update this one?

Dungeon God: You have realized that you are (kind of) the god of your own world.

That would be a yes. Thanks, System!

Please update the Rule 'Rewarding Fake Core' so my Fake Core can completely mimic all possible actions of my Real Core.

Calculating… Updating the Rule ‘Rewarding Fake Core' to 'Mimicking Fake Core' costs 2,910 mana.

Well… That is more expensive than I expected.

Dungeon Cores themselves must do much more than I realized…

It took me till 14 minutes after sunrise before I had enough mana to update my Rule.

Dungeon Rule Updated: 'Rewarding Fake Core' becomes 'Mimicking Fake Core' Mimicking Fake Core: The Fake Core is able to mimic the behavior of the Real Dungeon Core on its behalf. It has a bond to the Real Core similar to the one Dungeon creatures have with the Core but unlike them, the Fake Core uses the bond not to stay 'alive' but to one day become a Dungeon creature, specifically a 'Dungeon Core mimic'.

…

So awesome! And so pleasantly unexpected! I just thought it would have some previously unknown funktion, I didn't expect to get a new type of mimic out of it!

… Was it 'cause I used the word 'mimic' in my update request?

…

Never mind then! Tell me about the new Dungeon Core mimic!

The Dungeon Core mimic is a unique Dungeon creature. It is created from the standard bond between a Dungeon Core and its creatures being directed to a Dungeon Core shaped trap, which is programmed into mimicking its Core. The Dungeon Core mimic is simultaneously the only Dungeon creature able to enter the Core Room and completely unable to leave it. This allows it to exist outside of the maximum allowed levels worth of creatures per Floor. Despite being a mimic, the Dungeon Core mimic can only mimic its own Dungeon Core. It will always have the highest level possible for the Dungeon. It will only attack or reveal itself if ordered to by its Dungeon Core.

That is so cool!

Unique Dungeon creature? Well, the description did indirectly tell me I can't create this mimic the way I make my other creatures.

But wow, is this one cool!

…

IT'S THE ULTIMATE HIDDEN BOSS!

…

Uhhh! I can't wait till you're here!

…

… I'm basically pregnant now… I certainly feel the excitement and anticipation of it!

…

That means I gave to share the news with my loved one, right? Or is that not applicable to this?

Don't I already have hundreds of children? What is one more?

But every other one was brought to life instantly. This one is special.

… Damn it! You're not supposed to have favorites among your children!

In the end I told the kobolds about it, framing it as a powerful mimic, which would one day help them protect me.

I didn't want them to notice my favoritism.

They were naturally very happy about my news.

…

They began praising my brilliance…

…

Which was not what I had intended, just like I hadn't intended for my Fake Core to one day come alive. And honestly, getting worshiped for something I had done by accident felt a bit hollow.

After that sidetrack, I got back to my current mission.

Send a request for making a Hidden Magma Pit on the 9th Floor through the Dungeon Core Cage and inform me of the response.

I felt a psychic response from the Fake Core, which could easily be translated to a confident 'affirmative'. A bit robotic, but eager to obey. Then I heard the Lightning Mage wake up with a gasp, after which she began speaking to herself, louder than normally in her excitement.

I might not have been able to see what she saw, but all her muttering really helped fill in the blanks.

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Getting a System message while sleeping is like an ordinary person getting poked in the middle of the night. You would wake up enough to realize what had happened, but not so much you would be unable to simply ignore it and fall back asleep again.

But if you in that moment of partial awareness realized you had been poked because something interesting had happened? Then you would suddenly have a very hard time trying to fall asleep again.

It was recommended that requests from tamed Dungeons were answered within 12 hours or it would make its Cage degrade faster. But waiting even 11 hours before replying to the request would make so small a difference it wasn't worth bothering with.

But even though Sarzina Acacia could simply go back to sleep without there being any consequences, her excitement kept her from doing so.

It finally happened!

Before she called the actual System message to the forefront of her mind, she got up, grabbed her notebook and pencil, before going back into her sleeping bag.

A Dungeon Core is trying to make a Hidden Magma Pit trap on its 9th Floor, but is blocked by an Enchanted Dungeon Core Cage linked to you.

Will you allow the trap to be made?

Yes/No

She wrote down the name of the trap and its placement, before asking the System to clarify like she had been taught to do when a new type of request appeared. While some types of traps and puzzles had the same name across various Dungeons, they often had some subtle differences, typically in size.

Holy System! Please inform me, so I might better myself and others: What is a Hidden Magma Pit trap?

Hidden Magma Pit traps are 6 meters deep, 2 meters wide circular holes filled with magma to the 4 meter point. The top is covered with a thin layer of stone camouflaged to look like the surroundings.

Zina wrote it down, word for word, though no part of the description surprised her. It was very rare that anyone could ask and receive answers from the System. Even this form was incredibly restricted as she could only ask questions related to the current request. As such, even though Dungeon monsters of the same name never had any differences across Dungeons, dungeon masters tended to ask for a description of each of the Dungeon’s monsters when the opportunity would first arise.

Normally the request for a description of the requested item or monster was the only question the dungeon master asked, though sometimes the dungeon master wanted to know exactly where a trap or puzzle was to be placed in a room. The System would then inform them of the placement of the trap or puzzle's center by first stating how far away from the entrance of the room it was, if one walked straight ahead. Then they would state a second distance to either the left or right.

Zina didn't want to know the exact placement of traps, as it would remove the challenge of finding them. On the other hand she wanted to know where puzzles were placed, but not how to solve them, as that would again remove the challenge. So, she planned to word her requests carefully when it came to puzzles.

Monsters would always be a challenge, so she didn't mind learning all she could about them.

A Hidden Magma Pit seemed like it would be challenging in the normal Dungeon way, and not dangerous to higher tiers - should they be unprepared - like the heating trap of the 7th Floor was. As such, Zina intended to grant the request.

But before she did so, she wanted to make sure she didn't have any other related question she wanted to ask the System.

Wait. Don't you normally get to know not just what Floor, but also what room the trap will be in? While Zina didn't want to know exactly where in the room the trap would be placed, her duty as dungeon mistress meant she needed to know at least that much.

Before she got to ask the System what room there was talking about - partly thinking the Floor might only have a single room in it - the System message changed.

A Dungeon Core is trying to make a Hidden Magma Pit trap in The Gargoyle Garden on its 9th Floor, but is blocked by an Enchanted Dungeon Core Cage linked to you.

Will you allow it to do so?

Yes/No

Zina quickly wrote the change down.

Oh holy System! Please inform me, so I might better myself and others: What is 'The Gargoyle Garden'?

The 1st room of the 9th Floor of the Dungeon of Karma is named 'The Gargoyle Garden'.

Both room and Dungeon have names?! The new knowledge was excitedly written down.

After having considered this fact for a bit, Zina gathered her courage and asked a question she wasn't sure the System would answer. She even changed her prayer, as she couldn't see any way for the answer to actually make anyone a better version of themselves. Normally knowing more about a Dungeon would help one survive in it, and people entered Dungeons because they wanted to leave as a better, stronger - and richer - version of themselves.

Holy System! Please inform me, so I may be granted a small part of Your wisdom, which I will then grant to others: Is the first room of the 9th Floor of the Dungeon of Karma the only room with a name?

Every room in the Dungeon of Karma is named.

High on having such a unique conversation with her god, she forgot to write the answer down right away, and instead asked another risky question:

Holy System! Please inform me, so I may be granted a small part of Your wisdom, which I will then grant to others: Is the Dungeon of Karma the only named Dungeon or do all Dungeons have names?

The question was actually simply 'have the System actually named all Dungeons, but no dungeon master ever thought to ask for the name of their Dungeon during one of these requests before?', but she knew the System would only answer questions related to her own Dungeon's request. Including the newly discovered name of her Dungeon was hopefully enough to make the question count as related to the request.

Dungeons are named by the first sapient to refer to it by a unique moniker.

So, the System doesn't name Dungeons themselves, but accepts what we call our Dungeons as their true names! The exciting news was quickly written down, and the discovery would definitely help her gain eternal fame.

Zina considered asking if the rooms of every Dungeon had names, but she didn't want to chance her luck and possibly getting ignored by her god for going off topic.

She was also pretty sure her studies stated that rooms were referred to by numbers, starting from the entrance of the Floor.

With no more questions for the System, Zina permitted the request.

The dungeon mistress had no intention of going back to sleep. She could hear people moving around outside her tent, so it couldn't be all that early anyway.

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While my fake request hadn't gone perfectly, I had at least learned a lot in the attempt.

So, she can ask the System questions related to my 'requests', which means she has access to the description of anything I request. Good thing I chose to start with a simple trap.

Interestingly, it doesn't sound like sapients have unlimited access to general information windows like I have. Which is good for me as it'll keep my creatures efficient for longer.

The fact that she expected to know what room it was meant to be placed in came as a surprise, and I had quickly informed the Fake Core that the fakely requested trap would be fakely placed at The Gargoyle Garden.

Remembering too late that normal Dungeon Cores weren't sapient and as such their rooms wouldn't have names.

At least the System revealing that all Dungeons had names, had made me seem more like a normal Dungeon.

Not that I wanted to be seen as a normal Dungeon. I actually quite liked being worshiped!

But I knew I was too young to be able to deal with the consequences of being seen as too abnormal by people like these elves.

I now know what to do and be aware of for my next 'request'. I have learnt from my mistakes and I will strive to do better!