2036 Words

In the last one and a half months since the two boys left Quin had finally reached 40% cultivation mark. Human cultivators had to break through a barrier for every 10% cultivation, but he was different now. Dungeons didn't need to exert themselves or comprehend something to advance. The only thing they had to do once they had reached the appropriate level was to design a new floor and increase the size of all existing floors by 10%.

In the beginning that increase only amounted to an extra room at best but over time the space even on the first floor would be so enormous that even low level could become a problem as they would form giant communities and with the increase in numbers the chance of an evolution or a beast with above average cultivation speed occurring increased as well.

More was of course something Quin desired as every single one of them would increase his cultivation speed by a bit and the more beasts there are the more fights occur that would strengthen the overall fighting strength of his dungeon, making him also a bit safer.

Another change was that the had already switched owners several times. As he had predicted the first really did emerge from the living in the first . It happened when he hit 20% and after he created the second floor. A huge rush of higher concentrated Mana that occurred when he connected the first and the second floor via a tunnel to the boss room and the closest tortoise managed to use the sudden increase in Mana pressure to break the hurdle to the second stage.

The second floor looked basically the same as the first one, but this time instead of many relatively small rooms he created bigger caverns and deeper ponds as well as stalagmites and stalactites to have just a bit of differentiation from the first floor.

When the wave of Mana rushed through the dungeon the went into a frenzy to reach the second floor and secure a good base. Before, the caves were cramped and the individual populations small with the having the highest population at 50. And that was only possible because they had begun digging themselves a base and with that expanded the useable living space. Having the dungeon inhabitants dig out space was the only possible method to expand the dungeon besides cultivating.

Securing a base as far down the dungeon as possible was the highest priority, because the longer you can absorb the concentrated Mana the higher were your chances of reaching the second stage.

In the end the dungeon ended up with the following distribution of beasts.

The had once again claimed the lowest room as they had the support of the first of the dungeon. The had used the opportunity the higher ceilings had provided and taken hold of the second highest room after the new .

Each of the 10 had claimed a smaller cave near the rooms where planted themselves as they were the centipedes main source of food. The and on the other hand had spread themselves through the whole floor unimpeded as they had no natural predators yet because no beast could digest them.

The on the other hand were down to 20 now and had been pressured back to the first floor where they were now the unchallenged overlords. The didn't even try to move down as they were the weakest species to begin with and begun occupying every pond on the first floor, but to give them a chance in the future and not be bound to one entrance Quin began to make several entrances to the second layer and decided to do that to each subsequent floor so that the didn't have an automatic claim on the new since he started first from the only entrance.

Another side effect of the Mana wave was that the first began evolving. That was the original purpose for their existence and being a food source early on had just been a neat side effect. It was critical for the development of the dungeon that evolution occurred since the only that could be created from scratch were the ones with the lowest aptitudes where reaching stage 3 would be a miracle and reaching stage 2 was relatively rare. They only existed to get the dungeon through the early development safely before it started producing the real monsters.

Natural evolution on the other hand could produce with better aptitudes and a great variety with the beasts even having the option to evolve further in future generations. Of course not all evolutions were good and some of the would end up either disfigured or with useless abilities. But evolution through Mana is never random.

The actions and habits of the animal or beast dictated how it could evolve further. For example a that hid itself in the ground while having its net spanned above it to catch prey would certainly evolve into a or while a spider that jumps out of dark corners to attack its prey would become a or .

At the moment Quin had no means to influence the spiders and nudge them to a specific evolution, but that would change later on. It was a good thing that evolved beasts could reproduce with the beast species it originated from as it was either impossible to find another one of its kind or the later generations would weaken due to inbreeding.

The inbred beasts wouldn't be weak by themselves, but due to a lack in gene variety later generations would find it impossible to evolve further unless they found beasts of the same species with different ancestors to revitalize the gene pool. So for every new species that popped up he gave them the same chance and added another 9 of them so that there were 5 males and 5 females. Wether they would succeed or go extinct didn't matter to him as some day new ones would pop up anyway and the process would begin anew.

When he opened the third floor the title of shifted for the first time. A few of the had banded together and soon turned the into a toxic wasteland. When the then assaulted the room they were at a severe disadvantage and the was slain.

While most of the centipedes pursued the retreating tortoises one stayed behind and devoured previous carcass. Since the body was very Mana-rich, it made a spontaneous happen in which the evolved into an and made him break through to the 3rd stage.

As the now uncontested ruler of the floor he promptly gained the title.

The centipedes were very territorial beasts and so only the mates and young of the In conclusion the other beasts were forced to either develop a mild poison resistance since the poison wasn't as potent as in the with the centipedes so spread out, or stay in their territories. When Quin reached 39% in cultivation the first that evolved from had made their way through to the third floor, many poisonous plants and fungi had popped up and and most species living on the 3rd floor had developed a poison resistance and had a leader at the peak of the 3rd stage.

Then he created the 4th floor and the power balance began to shift once again. Instead of the centipedes it was this time the that arrived first by abandoning all their offspring unlike the other species. Under the lead of a 3rd stage evolved . Since the caves and tunnels were even bigger this time around they could hide themselves under the ceiling and and ambush intruders from above.

Since the lead the centipedes he was the first to charge into the nets of the spiders until he was trapped and couldn't move backwards or forwards anymore. The then just let his acid drip on the centipedes head until his carapace was burned through and finished him off. That prompted those centipedes that could into a hurried escape. Since it had killed the previous it was then accepted as the strongest beast in the dungeon and became the new .

Then instead of taking the whole carcass for himself he distributed it evenly so that the strongest had a chance to also make the breakthrough to the 3rd stage, making them collectively stronger so that they could secure the the next time too. With that act one could see that differ greatly from normal animals and show that they can be cunning and act with foresight, securing their future.

Meanwhile on the first floor all the and newly evolved fought a never ending war against swathes of different rat species. There were some that had denser muscles for digging but worse eyes because they weren't needed in dark tunnels, that were named , then there were some with sharper claws, teeth or better sensory organs and some were just bigger like the .

It was really fortunate for the struggling species that the strongest rats were migrating further down under the lead of a that had just reached the 3rd stage on the 3rd floor under the pressure of constant battle. But there the descent of the rats came to a screeching halt as every race that had conquered a part of the fourth floor had at least one evolved leader at the peak of the third stage and a few on the beginning and middle of the third stage.

Since the rat leader knew that constant fighting was the way to make its horde of rats stronger it began assaulting every other faction on the floor. Under the constant pressure of the rats many made the breakthrough to the third stage and the organization of the species on the third floor soon surpassed that of most species on the fourth floor.

The second floor in contrast saw barely any fighting except for food since most of the beasts incurred heavy losses when the rats swept over them like a tide, but the ones remaining were the elite of their race with most of the races ending up with a 3rd stage leader and many evolutions like the and .

Even the were prey to some of the tunnel digging rats and the survivors had formed a synthesis with the by living in the safety of their primitively dug villages and in return providing valuable minerals for their continued growth. From this union the were created, having a high physical resistance and a nigh impenetrable cap.

All in all Quin was very pleased with the progress of his dungeon. The inhabitants were ferocious, probably able to take on a human 1-3 Stages above itself and in sufficiently vast numbers with good teamwork.When one combines that with the ridiculous maturation time in his dungeon it was almost invincible at the Mist-Mana stage.

He had furthermore begun carving different formations on good nesting spots to make them better defendable like giving someone who stayed for at least two days inside a 2 hour defense buff, enhanced regeneration or better fertility and many more. The best formations he could do at the moment were of course reserved for the and for more enhanced or bigger formations he would need to reach the stage.

When all was settled down and the rats reached a stalemate with the other races on the first and third floor the next group of hunters entered. This time though, they weren't human.