Day 399

I then collect all the plants I currently have and select the ones usually used for mana potions, start experimenting but only get a very meager share of mana so I think about it and remember that I am very good at absorbing mana crystals. I then mix mana crystals into the potion. And it works ! Even if it must be made of 50% crystal powder.

I refine the recipe several times but I cannot go below 7%. It's always a good result and I create several more, I consume a little mana while creating them but I recover more while absorbing them, the only obstacle is the amount of rare herbs that I can produce. When I go deeper it will improve. I am continuing my research on summoning runes.

Day 435

The merchant should be in the audience with the king and I send him a list of things to acquire on the way home. I can create a new floor, I start on the same principle as before. The staircase descends directly into a vast forest 200 meters wide by 800 meters long. I introduce some weak monsters including birds and plants but also some snakes. The rulers of the seventh floor remain the goblins, there are many more hobgoblins, about half the total number, and there are five goblin leaders spread across the floor. This is the evolution of Hobgoblins, with human-like intelligence and superior strength, they are devious and have leadership and hand-to-hand combat skills. I teach them how to create simple traps hidden in the forest, they are all equipped with weapons and armor. The guardian is a goblin-rider, it is a goblin of 1.50 green but stronger, in steel reinforced leather suit with two spears and a long sword in the back all enchanted. He rides a giant wolf monster 3m long without the tail and 1.50m high at the rump. Both have skills, the goblin in handling weapons, and can communicate in sync with the wolf who has affinity skills with the wind. When he dies, one of his weapons remains as a reward.

Day 462

It took a long time to set up the seventh floor, the merchant will be coming back to town in a week with what I asked him to do. A stronger than expected group has just entered my dungeon and the artificial core warned me of its danger, they don't seem to belong to a guild but rather to an independent organization. There are about a hundred of them, but very few specialize in dungeons. I don't recognize this one but usually they don't kill dungeons but try to control them.

They are way too loud for the upper floors and I do not stop them, arriving in front of my nucleus they immediately go into action. They trace rune circles for several hours and feature various ingredients, most of which I recognize, and they are primarily used for subjugation rituals.

I don't stop them, after all it's just an artificial nucleus. These organizations provide a huge amount of stuff to a growing dungeon in exchange for enchanted weapons or riches, I can play with them for great rewards.

They begin their ritual and I immediately remove my control link from the man-made dungeon just in case. The organization must be evil because the leader sacrifices three of his subordinates to solidify the ritual in the blood, no one seems shocked and they continue. Ten minutes later the ritual is over and they are all collapsed, they cannot really communicate with the nucleus but can control it with simple and direct commands. These rituals are very rare and generally the dungeons revolt with their superior instincts, moreover they always seek an escape which often passes by the death of the contracted ones.

At the end of the ritual, I take control carefully while they are still exhausted, I feel a cloud of blood and mana inside the artificial core which constrains it. I have to force mana several times to gradually eliminate the surplus, when they start to recover and get up I manage to reconnect and regain control.

They order me to produce gold with all the mana I can use. I produce 20,000 pieces to stimulate them and send through our bond of control a strong sense of hunger for new things and humans. They were warned by their organization because they are smiling. They leave, tell me to prepare more gold and that they will bring back food for me. I understand the hint and I am satisfied with the beneficial agreement for both parties.

Day 464

The demonic summoning ritual is almost complete, the more runes I know the easier it is to do tests and simulations. I am continuing my experiments on alchemy and enchantment. I am also creating a new project, I want to get a monster that would allow me to control humans discreetly. I don't know how to do it, but the ritual used by the organization reminds me that blood could make it easier for me.

My base is the closest blood monster in my dungeon, the Bloodthirsty Bat. They are large bats of 2 meters wingspan that suck the blood of their victims and tear their flesh. They can heal themselves with it and severely poison their victim.

If I want them to be able to control humans, they have to be like them. So I humanize a bat, raise it up on its hind legs which I stretch out, shorten the wings and almost remove the membrane before strengthening its arms and giving them a clamp at the end. These new monsters keep the face of a bat but can be bipedal and are no longer able to fly. I also give them a higher intelligence and an affinity with darkness and water. This is the first time that I have created a double affinity, the water will be used to manipulate the blood more when fused with the darkness.

I let these monsters on the seventh floor familiarize themselves with their bodies and I will continue to evolve.

Day 471

It took a long time to build a biped from a flying monster, the organization came back with samples of minerals and gems. I already owned most of them but some are new, I give them 10,000 gold before they leave. They seem annoyed at the meager sum and order me to give more but I only produce a few silver coins to show that I have no more mana. I return a feeling of hunger for monsters and living humans.

The city continues to develop, but the merchant's prolonged absence begins to have consequences. I don't take care of it and go back to the summoning ritual.

Day 476

Finally, I completed a high-level Demonic Sealing Ritual and a low-level Demonic Summoning Spell. There may still be a few mistakes but none that can put me in danger.

I massively inject mana inside and an imp spawns inside. He seems glad he was summoned and immediately tries to escape, I activate the sealing spell and his movements are severely restricted before coming to a stop. I try to communicate but I am unable to corrupt his soul. This one is more developed than humans and has a powerful control over it, and can be a superior demon. Their society is very feudal and the citizens are controlled by their lord by magic.

Seeing that I can't get anything out of it I kill him and try to get his soul back but it disappears almost immediately. I am content with the body and I discover a lot of knowledge about demonic anatomy. I also learn fragments of their language and its memories.

I start the process over by improving the demonic summoning circle and there are always lower demons appearing, some are smarter and I am starting to understand what they are saying.

By the tenth invocation, I can already speak with the demon. He offers me a contract to serve me before recovering my soul as payment. I then realize that demons are soul specialists and that their study would be of great benefit to me. I refuse the contract and offer to exchange all his knowledge for ten human souls. He is surprised then gives a very demonic sneer before accepting, I give him ten souls from my stash and an orb of knowledge.

I check the orb before absorbing it but nothing seems to pollute it. Contracts are very restrictive especially for demons who are always subordinate to a superior.

Day 477

The knowledge I have gained from demons allows me to speak the demonic language fluently but also to slowly learn new runes. I am now proficient in demonic cultivation, the agreement requires him to pass on all his knowledge and as an immortal creature he has amassed an incredible amount. He did however convey everything in a mess and very condensed, hoping I could never decipher it. Unfortunately for him, I am a dungeon and quickly decipher the Orb of Knowledge. I do other summons with identical contracts, but I receive less and less new knowledge.

Day 480

The new runes I learned allowed me to perfect my summoning ritual, it can now accommodate lesser or lesser demons. I have also improved the sealing circle and it should be able to hold the soul for a while if I can cheat the demons.

I perform a Lesser Summon and provide a one-soul contract for a total bondage period of one year. The demons have nothing to fear from this world since their soul will always be protected so he does not care to know the work in question.

I have him sit in the middle of the ritual hall and activate my sealing circle before killing him. I add most of my mana to the circle to get the soul and suck it into a soul crystal. Or rather I suck up a very small part before it disappears.

As I study this soul I notice that it is indeed controlled by a higher entity but that the form is similar to that of all other human beings. It is however much stronger, I think that by collecting souls they absorb a part before giving the rest to their superior in homage. This allows them to strengthen themselves.

I continue the experiment but I learn nothing more than that some souls are easier to remember than others. It depends on the higher being who controls the demon.

Day 482

I pass to lesser beings but I do not touch their souls, by giving them at least 100 souls I can obtain all of their knowledge. The quantity is overwhelming and I myself have difficulty deciphering them.

After collecting two knowledge orbs, I stop the experiments to concentrate on assimilating this knowledge.

I spend the next two weeks processing the data, the organization bought a shop in the city for cover and are sending me all kinds of monsters and slaves through their cellar which I have connected to the dungeon. He always orders me to provide them with metals or gems, sometimes enchanted weapons, but they are of poor quality.

Day 496

I have deciphered the data from the Knowledge Orbs and am starting to improve my rituals. The merchant has returned, it seems he was caught in a power struggle between the noble faction and the king faction. He joined that of the king and obtained the title of count, it is a great promotion for a baron and even more for a merchant just a year ago.

The Duke of the region is from the noble faction and he lobbied the Merchant not to get additional land. It shouldn't be a problem anymore because the merchant didn't plan to be a fanatic in the service of the king. Besides, I'm changing his name from merchant to count, it's more appropriate.

He brought back several caravans of produce from the capital, including what I had requested from the list, a whole jungle ecosystem. I absorb everything in his cellar and warn him about the organization. He quickly regains control of his city and organizes a party for his title of noble.

Day 497

With the support of the organization I can already build my eighth floor. I dig a huge cave 2 km by 300 meters. I filled the cave with jungle vegetation with the same insects as on the upper floors. I also add several monsters: birds, bears, monkeys etc. Finally, I create 20 goblin-riders, their mount is not a wolf but a jaguar. He's a huge, fierce kind of cat. I also add goblins, hobgoblins and goblin archers. The floor warden is in the last room, he is a 4m high gorilla with an affinity for nature. He can heal himself and deals powerful blows. His leather is very durable and he has a skill that allows him to go crazy when badly injured.

I also create awards, and the atmosphere is very humid and hot, I let water flow from the ceiling 40 meters away. I also created niches all over the cave and tall trees are growing all over the place.

Day 526

The eighth floor was not discovered until two days after I installed it, by a rank E team, they lost two limbs when the gorilla went mad but they were able to kill it. I gave them an extra reward to motivate them and spread the news.

A paved road has been built from the village to the city and the flow of goods and people stabilizes. There are currently 10,000 inhabitants and the craft and residential district is still at the end of construction. I continue to improve my rituals, and I have found an interesting new application. One of the demons I contracted had knowledge of an old teleportation circle, it was incomplete and used for travel between worlds but it might be of use to me. As you continue to grow the floors will get deeper and deeper and if high level adventurers have to go through the upper floors before reaching the lower floors circulation in the dungeon will be blocked.

So I'm looking for simplified teleportation circles between floors.