I watched for a moment as Elan flew away unsteadily, bumping into obstacles on his way. With a mental shrug, I left my questions for later. He was obviously shaken by something. After repairing the trap, I quickly scanned rest of the dungeon, noticing a pair of squirrels moving around in the first dungeon room, and a fox with a wounded leg. As the squirrels seemed to enjoy more about racing all over the cave, I focused upon the fox.

It had a large, bleeding hole in the front paw. The soul field of the fox was weak, just covering the body. Smelling opportunity, I quickly accessed my new knowledge about the snakes I could create. Forming a blank soul while imprinting it with my mana, I started adding guidelines for behaviour. I soon noticed that I could add more instructions and with greater detail than with mere insects.

Looks like the more complex the creature, the more instructions I can define. Oh, this is going to be fun. Finally being able to start properly experimenting with my powers as dungeon, I was giddy with excitement.

As I was creating the highly venomous snake, I made it focus on ambushing with hit-and-run tactic, aggressive hunting behaviour, hostility against those disturbing the dungeon domain, and feelings of absolute loyalty towards me and Elan. I also reduced their territorial aggressiveness against opposite sex, so I could have few of them in one of the larger caves, perhaps co-operating against intruders and keeping the numbers up.

Satisfied for now, I started creating a body for it in second cave from the first, infusing the soul to it. Creating the soul for the snake took a chunk of my mana, using a fourth of my mana to create one. Worth the cost with hereditary instructions infused in the soul.

As the large snake came into being, it was momentarily confused, only driven by instincts. I projected instructions to hide on the path of the fox, snake perking up and following the orders without delay. Snake used the natural camouflage, and hid within the plants near the less obstructed path the fox was going to take. With bated interest, I waited observing the snake as the fox drew closer, with the limping gait it was travelling with.

Couple minutes later, fox reached the range of the snake, yet it stayed still. As the fox was was passing by, I wondered if something went wrong. As the initial disappointment started to appear, snake struck from behind with blinding speed, piercing the neck of the fox with his impressing 10 centimeter fangs. The wounded fox froze for a second, before starting to froth from the mouth, and collapsing while violently convulsing upon the cave floor. Snake drew back and waited.

Sending my satisfaction to it, I absorbed the corpse of the fox. Satisfied, I now needed male bunny and female fox for my dungeon. I ordered my snake to stay within the cave as I may have some work for it soon enough.

I decided to try out the infusion with mana to the squirrels, as they were happily playing within my dungeon, oblivious to the fact that the mana within my domain had already seeping within their bodies through their weak soul fields.

I slowly increased the concentration of mana around them, hastening the process along.

I spent next ten minutes infusing my half of my mana to the squirrels, when I suddenly felt the same connection to them as to my other dungeon creatures. Squirrels stopped their playing, looking around confused. I tried ordering them to the next cave with the snake, and they followed readily enough. Yet I felt the connection wasn’t that of loyalty, more like following along. I made my snake hide within plants again, and sent only one of the squirrels to it.

As the snake almost crushed the body of a squirrel when biting down on it, I quickly absorbed the corpse as I ordered remaining one to its death.

Fantastic! I now have some prey for the snakes! I thought with satisfaction. Keeping them alive with only mana would be a massive drain for my current resources. Deciding I should try to bait male bunny for my collection, I created a couple of normal female rabbits with absolute loyalty to me and Elan, and decided to make it a habit. I don’t need them to think saving their lives if we’re in danger. As an afterthought, I infused a little mana to their pheromone gland to lure male rabbit more quickly.

Satisfied, I ordered the snake to wait in hiding for a foreign rabbit to approach either of the two I created. For the rabbits I told them to ignore the snake.

Having spent most of my mana, I withdrew my consciousness to my core and inspected it. I had grow about a centimeter in diameter, doubling my mana capacity during rank-up. Out of curiosity, I inspected my previous center, noticing a new one with slightly different colors appearing there.The new deep purple color was slightly more clear and vibrant, and the azure veins within were slightly brighter, being a slightly thinner when compared to the earlier ones.

Looks like dungeon cores grow their capacity by growing their centers again and again, yet why does the color change? Also the new purification channels seem to be thinner and that doesn’t make sense as less mana can fit in. Unless… Mana condensation? Such a novel idea! maybe same holds true for monster cores!

I grew increasingly excited and had to forcibly calm myself down.

I must see how and where animals evolving create their cores! Insects are too slow to grow stronger. Maybe I should create a proper playfield for a massive competition for survival for all of my animals. First I need to need to give prey a chance to fight back against predators, make them omnivorous… Yes! I’ll create a free-for-all competition for survival where only strongest live! But first I need to create a proper playing field for them… And then I must do some testing and acquire missing pieces… Ha! This is getting even more interesting!

***

Faran’s Dungeon, Elan’s POV

For the last month I haven’t stepped out of my small personal space Faran made for me after I had gathered materials for him from the forest. It was a small apartment with an escape route, hidden behind a thin stone slate in the dome within his core room. Light came from a small crystal vines on the roof, and furniture were created from customized bushes and ferns to look like carefully grown, living pieces of art. My bedroom was within the second room, as I kept some interesting plants or findings in the first room.

I have spent my time thinking hard whether to cut the contract between me and Faran, as our natures are too different. Honestly, he would have been better with a normal, overly enthusiastic dungeon fairy that was introduced before me. She would’ve supported his crazy quirks and insane ideas, as they make him stronger when he eventually succeeds.

I noticed that unlike during our initial negotiation, Faran is normally unhinged with his desires, and seeks to only further his knowledge. I also wonder why he did pick me, as I was obviously least qualified to guide a dungeon with my meager experience. Though nowadays he doesn’t seem to need my advice, and I can feel his excitement as keeps doing his experiments. I haven’t dared to step out of see what he had created, as I spurned him right after he completed his rank-up, and made just so Faran-like comments without any malicious intentions.

He doesn’t seem to regret any of his actions when I admonish him of his stupidity. Yet somehow he seems to at least respect my opinions and try to control himself afterwards. At least for a while, until he finds something else just as interesting as previous experiment.

Truth to be told, I don’t know how to face him as I fear how he’d react. He had been nothing but a proper partner, respecting my opinions, asking what I think of some crazy ideas he had sprouted, and asking nothing of my experiences for the last two centuries after the “interview”.

He hasn’t even once scanned my small home after creating it, just telling me “It’s your place, if you want something changed, just tell me. Otherwise I will not bother you when you’re inside, as it will be your personal space.”. How by the eight divines does he have propriety of respecting personal space when he usually does whatever he wants?

I’m not the only one that can break our contract, and honestly I’m starting to feel the limit approaching. After all, I pledged to “help him to the best of my abilities”, and here I am, avoiding him due to my own outburst. All he did was to appear there when I was at my lowest, and I took it on him. Only saving grace is that I’m not much of a help in the beginning stages of a dungeon, besides providing knowledge how other dungeons look.

Sighing, I think it is the time to grit my teeth and face his disappointment or wrath from spurning him like I did, as Faran didn’t do anything else than be his usual insensitive, idiotic self. With a depressed chuckle I move to the door, hesitating for a moment before sliding it to the side. Taking a deep breath, steeling myself for whatever may come, I step outside of my apartment.

The moment I step outside, I’m met with a blast of so condensed excitement, that I involuntarily step back from overwhelming feelings. As soon as I recover, Faran is already barraging my mind with a childish glee.

“You’ve never believe what I’ve created! The best survival of the best arena for everything, with only strongest being the winner! I have multiplied the evolution rate for all animals and a few are already almost at the level of a new monsters! Within months we might see a new monster being born!”

“Listen, Faran. I have something important to tell to you.”, I said and felt a slight confusion projected at me. As I was slightly nervous, I proceeded to clear my throat, and projected my most sincere expression as I began.

“I have been thinking about our partnership, and I feel like I did something inexcusable back when you awoke from your rank-up. So I’d like to apologize about what I said to you.”, Bowing deeply to Faran’s core, I held my position.

For some reason I felt his confusion grow greater and I started nervously sweating while still bowing.

“Ummm… So what did you do wrong? I don’t remember such events happening at all. Are you sure you didn’t get confused? You hit your head pretty hard and couldn’t fly straight after all.”, Faran kept talking, as if he couldn’t even remember me calling him a monster for just being insensitive.

Shocked, I stood up and exclaimed, “But I insulted you when you had just awoken from rank-up! You had done nothing wrong, yet I scorned you for your insensitive comment!”

After a moment of silence, Faran exclaimed, “Oh, right you called me a monster. Well that was mild compared to what I have been called when I was human by some. No worries, I’m basically a living crystal at the moment, essentially a monster anyways.”

I was stupefied how easily he dismissed my worries, before he continued with excited tone. “But more importantly, you should see what I have managed to do! This will soon allow me to understand how to create monster cores for my creatures! I spent almost a month setting this up when I was experimenting!”

I sunk in my thoughts while Faran kept explaining what he had experienced during his rank-up. Honestly, most of it was ignored as I processed the events that had just transpired. Maybe he wasn’t that bad of a partner, and I started to despise myself for misunderstanding him so badly.

At least until I heard him say, “and then I scammed a deity. Afterwards…”

At this point I screamed at him as my eyebrow started twitching, “YOU SCAMMED A DEITY?! How stupid can you get?!”. I was absolutely wrong, I must control this suicidal idiot from killing us both.

“Well yeah, some bitch with holier-than-thou attitude started bashing me as I woke up in my soul domain, so I got back at her. The scamming didn’t hurt her at all, but you can bet she was pissed when she realised a mortal just one-upped her as easily as turning your palm. Such a naive kiddo shouldn’t try to make deals with professional crooks like me.” Faran huffed with an obvious pride, despite the contents of his bragging.

I couldn’t even feel my brow anymore from the furious twitching as I raged,“Angering a deity is suicidal! Disastrous! You’re going to get us both killed!”.

All I got from this moron was a condescending snort. “Even full gods can’t intrude my territory, and she’s not probably even a full divinity. Just a some poor kid charged with a job above her skillset.”

“Gods can send visions to mortals! She can send adventurers to kill us!”, at this point I felt consideration from him, before he snorted again.

“No she can’t. She’s serving someone with at least neutral feelings towards dungeons. Besides, I think that would be interference outside her job and cost her more than gain with a petty vengeance. At most we’ll get a visit from a neutral source.”.

I must get some means to control him, he’s too unhinged when acting alone. I didn’t even notice how all of my previous worries were blown away by the new ones. What is personal anguish when confronted with a possible wrath of the divine?

“But who cares about some bitchy goddess, let me show what I’ve accomplished!”, Faran continued as he brushed off a pissed off goddess like a piece of dust on his sleeve.

“Now there are a few battles going on. Don’t worry, they are perfectly loyal to both of us. Let us go and see how killer squirrels gang up on a slasher rabbits when they’re feasting upon a bunch of poisonous snakes!”

At this point I froze in terror. I should’ve never left him alone for a month. I made a massive mistake.

Disparaging and yelling at him for corrupting perfectly fine, fluffy critters, I finally reached a scene of carnage. Around ten squirrels, triple their normal size, with scythe like claws and needle sharp teeth were furiously slashing at three rabbits double their size. Yet those rabbits had a muscular, lean build, with a set of equally ferocious, yet larger teeth and claws. One rabbit bounced with incredible speed, slashing a squirrel’s stomach open, splashing blood and dragging innards all over the cave. Squirrel died twitching as three squirrels leaped upon it’s back, ripping into rabbits back, dying the brown fur with crimson blood. I floated there stupefied, as rabbits slashed squirrels down one by one, with squirrels bringing down the the rabbit that they on to, ripping his flesh to the shreds. As the previously cute critters, now turned to killing machines, slashed at each other with abandon, a small group of snakes set upon them, killing both the squirrels and rabbits with a few bites.

Upon looking more closely, the dead snakes were the same type that was dead on the ground from the beginning.

With a touch of a pride, Faran started explaining, “You see, I spread tunnels and burrows all over the cave system for them. The ceilings, walls and floors are now full of nests and routes for them to move and breed in, while open areas are a free from all, strong eat the weak. I had so much fun trying out different mana infusements, forced mutations and behaviour modifiers!”.

As he blabbed on about his experiments, I vowed to never, ever leave Faran alone for a month to start his insane experiments again. To leave Faran alone, is to invite a disaster at you. I was just recovering from my stupidification, when he made most surprising comment so far.

“You know, if you like fluffy, small critters, I can create a small closed area with peaceful, even smaller than normal ones. I’ll even throw in extra fluffy white fur for all of ‘em!”, I guild feel his obvious amusement. He must have noticed of my fondness for a small animals from my reactions. Striking straight at my weakness, damn him!

But still, I couldn’t help but give a disgruntled agreement as I ignored what happened in the caves, and return to my apartment. There is no shame giving in for the cuteness! Yet I’ll be damned if he ever catches me with a smile. I must make sure he doesn’t start one of his experimentations again on other small furry animals...