The world was a big and scary place. Helios moved through the dark with steps as silent as the night itself. His furry paws landed so gently that even fallen leaves wouldn’t crunch under them.

That was, of course, assisted by the magic he was using to muffle his movements. And, naturally, he had also used magic to make himself invisible. It was basic technique for a Trick Spider. How else were they supposed to catch others by surprise when their fur was bright yellow and orange?

Relying on his magic, dexterity, and the memories Archimedes had shown him to guide him to his destination, Helios was swift and undetected. He hopped down the mountainside and scuttled through the town streets, sticking to dirt paths to avoid tousling grass and making his presence observable.

Archimedes had made it very clear that he couldn’t be caught no matter what. This was a special top-secret mission that only he could do.

The cat-sized monster’s destination came into view, looking exactly as it did in the memories the dungeon had shared with him. It was a three storey stone building on the edge of a village of trees. Helios climbed up to a glass window and peered into the dark and empty reception hall. His two forelegs wiggled in the air, and instantly the magical arachnid was a few paces forward, standing on the polished floor.

He scurried silently behind the reception counter, looked around for anyone hiding in the darkness, and shot an invisible web line up to the door handle of the storage room. He tugged but the handle didn’t budge; it was locked.

Helios held up his two front legs again, wiggled them, and there was a faint clicking sound as the lock opened.

Helios jumped in surprise at the sudden noise amidst the silence. He wiggled his arms again to silence the area around the door, and looked around frantically for anybody who might have heard it and come to investigate. There was no one.

Heaving a sigh in relief, Helios tugged his web line again, and the handle turned down. The storage room door swung open noiselessly.

Inside were rows of shelves, and one of them contained a basket filled with pretty oblong, egg-shaped crystals. Helios reached onto his back where a small web pouch sat and started moving to swap the crystals he had brought for the crystals there. But he hesitated.

These don’t look special. Daddy wanted special ones.

Helios looked around some more. Upon climbing a wall, he noticed that the higher shelves were split into much smaller cubbies. Many of them were empty when he checked, but a handful of them contained little crystals of their own. Helios gladly swapped those with the ones in his pouch.

From there, he left the closet, closing and locking the door and removing his silence spell over it. He wiped his fluffy forehead. Using this much magic out in the open world was much more tiring than it was back in the dungeon.

Almost done, he told himself. But as he made his way back to the window, the front door suddenly opened. Helios froze from being startled, but when he saw Ulbert step inside, he had to hold back his urge to greet the friendly demon.

Helios shook his head vigorously, scuttled out the door as Ulbert was closing it, and returned up the mountain as quickly as he could.

Had the nightwatch guard been present, the stealthy arachnid still would have gone unnoticed, but there was no elf, demon, or beastfolk anywhere in sight.

Helios delivered the special crystals to the dungeon’s doorstep, basking in the mana-rich environment and the dungeon’s praise.

“Very good, Helios, that was perfect, and this is exactly what I needed.”

Helios giggled happily, but there was still a silence spell cast over him.

“I’ve cataloged them and tagged which one goes where. Once your mana recovers, go and return them to their original places. Bring the tags and the empty crystals back with you. Understand?”

Helios whined silently. “I have to do it again?”

“You have to,” Archimedes confirmed. “I’m counting on you, Helios.”

The little spider perked up a bit. “Okay daddy.”

And a few minutes later he scurried off again to repeat the task.

***

Archimedes was busy that night with more than just research. The Explorer’s Guild’s recent questionable actions had triggered his often distrustful nature, so he was disentangling himself from them.

He didn’t intend to stop interacting with the Guild entirely—not yet when their intentions were still unclear—but he did intend to cut out any aspects of his management that were dependent on them. The only thing he still needed from them was a steady flow of outsiders entering his dungeon and helping his mana regeneration.

But even cutting off the unnecessary support revealed holes that Archimedes had previously allowed outsiders to fill. Even something as simple as having an outsider watch his entrance and verify those coming and going spared him from having to send a monster to do it or devote some of his own attention to the task.

He no longer found it acceptable.

There was no real excuse for the lack of forces at his disposal, even if the monsters he had made were all highly capable. Unfortunately, with the starting boon he had chosen, each individual monster put a greater burden on his psyche than usual, so he had been wary of making more. But to have created only a single new monster alongside his third floor was inexcusable.

So after he sent Ulbert and Helios away (the first time), Archimedes sent Minute to formally deliver a letter to the guild employee on guard duty, politely dismissing him from his post. It was accompanied by a citation of the guild regulation that allowed dungeons to refuse guards and a signed waiver that placed the responsibility for any resulting gaps in security solely on the dungeon.

While looking rather confused and apologetic, the guard left his post, and Archimedes considered what in his arsenal of monster blueprints would make a good gate guard.

That matter was important and needed to be addressed soon, but Archimedes wasn’t short on crises at the moment. First, he called upon Lilith to get another ball rolling.

“I need you to visit with Anther’s family again,” he told her. “Convince them to come here so I can speak to them.”

“This late at night?” Lilith questioned. Dungeon monsters didn’t need to sleep, but she was clearly concerned for the outsiders she was going to visit. She exited the cave’s mouth and noticed the watchman was missing. “What happened to the nightwatch guard?”

“The guild doesn’t allow people without the proper credentials, like Anther’s parents, to enter dungeons. And there were other… inconveniences. He’s been dismissed.”

Archimedes wanted to maintain the current state of affairs until he could find another cure for Anther’s condition. If the Guild realized that their stalling had been seen through, there was a chance they would switch tactics. The devil he did know was preferable to the devil he didn’t.

“You’re being overdramatic again,” Lilith sighed faintly.

Despite her stoic face, the dungeon could feel her heart beating with excitement at the prospect of going outside again. Separation from the dungeon was uncomfortable, but the proto-human also seemed to find it thrilling.

“Perhaps,” he said hesitantly, “But I’d rather be wrong than ruined. Be descrete when you go.”

He conjured a dark cloak for her to obscure her features with. If anybody saw her, they would hopefully suspect her to be an elf rather than a dungeon resident.

“I got it. Wish me luck.”

She descended down the mountain with careful steps. A human’s low-light vision left much to be desired, but bringing a lantern would have been too conspicuous, so she would have to find her way in the dark.

Now Archimedes returned to the matter of guarding his front door.

Two qualities were needed of the creature that would be in charge of this task: strong defensive power, and the ability to communicate smoothly with whoever came to visit.

One monster immediately came to mind, and conveniently his first floor was already a Fertile Cave Biome.

Archimedes swallowed his discomfort and planted a new Nymph next to the entrance. He metaphorically clenched his teeth through the process of her roots spreading throughout the floor. The resultant trembling caused the small critters on the first floor to scatter and hide themselves.

Of course, like Deorsa, this one was emotionally stunted, but instead of a blank and monotone countenance, the new specimen wore an unflinching service smile.

Archimedes named her Demeter.

As Nymphs could speak telepathically in whatever language their conversation partner understood and automatically assumed a pleasing female appearance (where applicable) of their same race, they were actually quite ideal for service-style jobs. That said, a Nymph who hadn’t had her mind messed with would usually be far too capricious to be trusted with such a sensitive task…

In addition, a Nymph enhanced by a Fertile Cave practically controlled the land itself. There was no monster with stronger defensive abilities that he could possibly create at this rank.

That said, these Nymphs couldn’t have their rank increased after being made, like the mandrakes couldn’t. Perhaps that was the trade off of augmenting monsters with compatible Biomes—they departed from the usual path of evolution.

If I ever discover another Biome that synergizes with monsters like this, I can test that hypothesis.

Although Demeter’s roots spread through the entire first floor, Archimedes didn’t give her permission to affect the area inside the cave. Were she not mentally crippled, she could have resisted said forbiddance, but that was precisely why he had not allowed either of his Nymphs to be born whole. They were too powerful to be ignoring orders.

Demeter was, however, his new gate guardian, so she was allowed full control of the small slice of dungeon that existed under the blue sky in order to do her duties, but that was all.

Next, in consideration of his ever increasing energy needs, Archimedes planted a new Mandrake seed on the second floor. The mental faculties of a Mandrake were quite random so far, but they hopefully all had the ability to produce ether from sunlight. Archimedes had grown physically and stabilized somewhat emotionally, so he hoped that adding another few monsters with strong personalities would be fine.

This time, Archimedes ordered Deorsa not to let anyone near the seed until he decided it was ready for harvest. Once removed from the soil, the mandrake would never grow further, and he didn’t want another repeat of Merina. This time, he hoped to produce one with a higher Rank than Alphio.

After that, Archimedes determined that he needed more spies. He wouldn’t be comfortable until he knew exactly what the Guild was thinking, and it seemed unlikely that they would tell him willingly at this point, so he wanted to keep a close eye on their behavior. Helios had his own work to do inside the dungeon, so he couldn’t always be in charge of that. Not to mention, he was a little too naive for more subjective spy work. Trick Spiders did have good basic qualities for such things, though.

Archimedes took some time and mana to produce three more Trick Spiders. He wasn’t sure what to expect from them, since his subconscious seemed to do the heavy lifting when it came to the individual differences between his monsters, but these three were fairly taciturn.

They came in less vibrant colors than Helios. One was striped blue and white, another purple and black, and the third one was white and gray.

“Your names are Oceanis, Umbra, and Cumulus,” he named them based on their colorations as he had done for their older brother. Sadly, he wasn’t at risk of running out of fallen dungeon names any time soon. Wizards in his old world used to adore crafting staves out of low-ranking cores…

All three of the new spiders were male; a deliberate choice as female Trick Spiders were considerably larger than the males and thus less suited for spy work. Archimedes gave each of them a creature core and introduced them to Helios when he returned a second time. The spiderling’s fatigue seemed to disappear in an instant.

“I’m a big brother!” he proclaimed, jumping happily.

“Is that how it works?” the dungeon murmured.

Archimedes ordered the newbies to practice magical stealth techniques under Helios’s watch until they mastered them. His plan was to typically have one stay here as a reserve while the other two would go observe the Guild. They would rotate frequently in order to rest and recover their mana.

Helios patted Cumulus, the one who was likely staying behind first. “It’s okay, I’ll play with you until you get to go outside.”

“Oh… Yes. Thank you,” Cumulus nodded politely. It seemed he was created with a more mature mental age than Helios but still acknowledged his brother’s edge in experience. He would likely treat their play more as training.

Satisfied with the state of his monsters and how they were getting along, Archimedes pondered what to do next. Should he immediately resume his experiments? Build larger ether tanks? Kick up another mana harvest and start saving for another floor or monster evolution as quickly as possible?

I’ll make a tank, he decided. Depending on how the talk with Anther’s family goes, I may have to adjust my priorities, but having a place to store liquid ether will help regardless.

Just as he had made his decision and was about to bury himself in the mundane task of weaving Mananite, a familiar faded window appeared in the center of his vision, causing a sense of elation to rise quickly in his core.