《Recurring Dungeon》


 Welcome to the world

    [Day 1]


    ###


    #o#


    ###


    [status, Day 1, mana 1/1*, Size 1, core 7, floor progress: 7%]


    Well, that is one way to wake up I suppose. It is a bit startling to go from nothing to fully alert in an instant.


    But after that, my first sensation is the paradoxical feeling of being both exposed and confined. So, I look around and I can tell two things: it is dark and I am in some sort of box. Or perhaps I am the box, hard to tell, but I can''t see anything outside the box, and the only things in the box are a pedestal, perhaps one tenth of a box-width in diameter and one fifth of a box-width in height, in what seems to be the center of the square box. On the pedestal, the part of the box that feels the most ''me'' is a partially translucent ball perhaps half as wide as the pedestal that is sort of glowing but not casting any light around it.


    Well, that''s me, so let''s see what would make me feel less exposed.


    <Clothing> hmm nothing, <Cloth> still nothing. <Robe> nope.


    well, that did something. I can feel something draining out of me as a quadruped with a long tail and a pointed head forms next to my pedestal. It is about as long as my pedestal is tall, looks like it has claws and teeth, so that is something. Once it finishes forming I get a notification:


    [Rat summoned]


    Ok, cool, I''ve got a rat and now I feel a lot less exposed. Now let''s see what I can do about that confinement.


    Rat, go dig at the wall! Nothing. <Rat go dig at the wall!> It takes a bit to frame the entire thought as a single impulse, but once I do, the rat ignores me. Clearly not the right approach then.


    I focus on the intent to reach out and break open the side of my box, and get rewarded with the sensation of something hard and some bits of wall falling to the floor before evaporating. So not blunt force, perhaps something more like the claws of the rat. Reaching out again, I focus on big rat-like claws cutting into the damaged wall, getting rewarded by more and more of the wall crumbling before my might!


    Ok, so not so much a box as an unfinished room with dirt walls, well, I know how to dig now, so let''s get digging!


    After digging more than a full room-length, the passage started feeling tight and constraining, so I widened it, and once the dug-out area was as big as my starting area, I had an impulse to fill it up. I gave in to the impulse and felt myself rushing into the newer area, suddenly the floor smoothed out and I felt a little less constrained as my awareness spread to encompass this larger area.


    Well, ok, I guess that makes my starting area some sort of ''minimum unit area'' or some such, and now I have two of them.


    Makes me wonder at their significance.


    [status, Day 1, mana 1/1*, Size 2, core 7, floor progress: 13%


    Defenders: Rat


    Traps: Pit, Spikes


    Features: Rebirth, Nest]


    Oh, that''s handy.


    Well, since my rat is trying to sleep on the floor, it would probably appreciate a nest now that I have the space for it. Then I can see about digging out some more space.


    [Day 2]


    ####


    #r.###


    #no. #


    ######


    [status, Day 2, mana 2/2*, Size 5, floor progress: 33%]


    Woah! I just started digging a new two-by-two room and that took a whole day? I did not even have a chance to expand into the area and the day was already over! Wait, where did my rat go? Oh, it went to the nest. Shouldn''t I have noticed when that happened? Hmm, would I even notice if I fell asleep as fast as I woke up? I never felt tired, but perhaps if I watch my status more closely I can get a better idea of what is going on.


    Ok, then we finish up the new room.


    #######


    #r.#..#


    #no...#


    #######


    [status, Day 2, mana 4/4, size 9, floor progress 60%]


    Looks like my max mana is perhaps half my size, does growing give more mana too? I need to keep an eye on that while I dig out a third room, if I can.


    #########


    #r.#..#.#


    #no.....#


    #########


    [status, Day 2, mana 1/6, size 12, floor progress 80%]


    Seems that digging out cost me a mana, but expanding, not so much. Still need to finish that room and perhaps a bit more, but I only have mana for one more space. I wonder if running out of mana is why I got surprised by Day 2. Time to find out.


    [Day 3]


    ##########


    #r.#..#.##


    #no..... #


    ##########


    [status, Day 3, mana 6/6*, size 12, floor progress 80%]


    Yep, using up my mana seems to end the day, or perhaps put me to sleep. Something to watch for. On the plus side, I should be able to get big enough to create a new floor today. Pretty simple so far, but I also seem to only be a few days old, so perhaps that is ok for now.


    ##########


    #r.#..#..##


    #no.......#


    ###########


    [status, Day 3, mana 4/7, size 15, New Floor designation available]


    Let''s see what happens if I tell it to put the stairs in that newest hallway, speaking of stairs, I probably need a bigger monster or else everything will be stuck on the floor they start on.


    [Floor Designated, New Defender: Giant Rat]


    Whoa, I was not expecting that!


    Everything seems turned around all of the sudden. Now instead of having my rat nest right next to me, it is on the far side of my dungeon. I can also feel that this one alcove where I had intended to put my new stairs is instead the entirety of my new floor. So I guess it is good to know that I can move. Also, that did not make me a set of stairs as I expected, so I guess that is something I do myself.


    Well, I guess I can create a new stair-alcove near the nest and build some stairs there.


    [Day 4]


    ###########


    #vr.#..#..##


    ##n.......o#


    ###########


    ###


    #^#


    ###


    [status, Day 4, mana 8/8, size 17, floor progress: 13%]


    Looks like the stairs took my last couple mana.


    Also, my mana is without that star. If I add it all up, I think that might be more than I spent on previous days? Depends on the cost of the new level, but the new things I did yesterday were designate a new floor and build stairs.


    I should probably try summoning the new giant rat so this floor seems less empty and more defended. Don''t want someone breaking in and smashing me because I neglected my defenders after all. Also, floor progress suggests that the next floor needs roughly the same amount of space this one took.


    Looks like the giant rat took a mana and is a good three times as long as the original rat, meaning it probably weighs almost ten times as much. That makes me feel a lot safer.


    I think I have enough mana to dig out the next room and add a defender for each room thus far.


    [Day 5]


    ###########


    #vr.#.R#R.##


    ##n.......o#


    ###########


    #####


    #^R.###


    ##....#


    ######


    [status, Day 5, mana 8/11, size 23, floor progress: 53%]


    It looks like I got the same amount of mana as yesterday and not even full. I think I am going to try to rush the new stairs and see if that gets me additional mana per day, or if I need to designate new floors for that. It also looks like all four of my current rats are happy to curl up in the nest together. My original rat looks almost like a baby compared to the other three, kind of cute.


    ###########


    #v..#.R#R.##


    ##n.......o#


    ###########


    #####


    #^R.########


    ##........v#


    ###########


    ###


    #^#


    ###


    [status, Day 5, mana 1/14, size 28, floor progress: 87%]


    So far so good, now to end the day by digging out part of oe of those rooms and see if I have 8 or 9 mana when I wake up!


    [Day 6]


    #######


    #^R.#.######


    ##........v#


    ###########


    ###


    #^#


    ###


    [status, Day 6, mana 8/14, size 29, floor progress: 93%]


    Nope, as expected it is the new floor that gave me the bump in mana per day, and I think I can reach that point today.


    ###########


    #^R.#..#..##


    ##........v#


    ###########


    ###


    #^#


    ###


    [status, Day 6, mana 5/15, size 33, New Floor designation available]


    Yes! new floor time! Let''s see what my new defender is like.


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    [Floor Designated, New Defender: Goblin]


    Oof, that took a chunk of mana, and it stretched my third floor up the steps. Guess I forgot to put an open area on the bottom floor for my core. Well, I''ll do better next time, at least I was able to get my core off of that first level.


    Let''s see if my last mana is enough to summon a goblin to protect me on this floor.


    Nope! felt like something was trying to suck out my insides for a moment there, so I''ll finish off the day with a second rat here on my second level and try again for the goblin tomorrow.


    [Day 7]


    ###########


    #^R.#R.#.o##


    ##........v#


    ###########


    ###


    #^#


    ###


    [status, Day 7, mana 9/16, size 33, Core 9, floor progress: 20%]


    Good to get verification that mana per day is the same as Core and goes up with each floor.


    Now let''s check out my new defender.


    Looks like the goblin would be about four rats long if it layed on the ground, a bit less tall than that with the hunch. It has hands, so it would probably be more effective with a weapon, but the only thing that came with it is a loincloth. I''ll need to see if I can find something suitable for it.


    Took three mana though, so I probably need a source of weapons for it to be cost-effective to summon more.


    I seem to be a little ahead of the curve on space, and as I wanted to carve out a place for my core before allocating the next floor, I think I should rush the stairs again.


    Interesting, my goblin came down to watch me dig, collecting several fist-sized rocks from the floor before they disappeared. I guess it can find some weapons after all. Hopefully it will be effective in supporting my rats. It would still be nice if there was a way for me to give it weapons though.


    [Day 8]


    ###


    # #########


    #........^#


    ###########


    [status, Day 8, mana 9/20, size 41, floor progress: 73%]


    Yep, looks like I''ll hit 100% before I even dig out my new core space, and I should have just enough for the four mana to create the next floor. Things seem to be speeding up!


    Also, since yesterday, it looks like the goblin managed to sharpen one of its rocks, so at least it has a sort-of knife now.


    Up to size 46 with four mana left and a couple oof open areas on the next floor, so let''s designate!


    Oof, clearly four mana is not enough. I guess for now I''ll put that mana into the bits I skipped.


    [Day 9]


    ########


    #v..#.R#####


    ##........^#


    ###########


    ####


    #^.#


    ##.#


    ###


    [status, Day 9, mana 9/23, size 57, New Floor designation available]


    Well, nine should be plenty of mana for a new level, so let''s start with that and see if I have enough to try out the new defender after that.


    [Floor Designated, New Defender: Orc]


    [Day 10]


    What? it took more than twice as much just for the new floor? It''ll probably take like twenty for the next floor at this rate.


    I really need to find a way to get more mana per day if this is going to continue. One full days worth of mana for the last level, probably two full days worth for the next level, then what, three days, four? I think it was roughly half of a days worth of mana for the second level, and probably about half of that for the first one, so, yea, probably four days worth of mana just to get the next defender and another mana per day. At least the floor size should not be as much of a problem... I hope.


    ####


    #^.#


    ##o#


    ###


    [status, Day 10, mana 10/23, size 57, Core 10, floor progress: 10%]


    That would have been 13% progress last time, so floors are needing to get bigger as well. That is probably needed just so that the mana needed for a new floor is not higher than the max mana when ready to make the new floor. That will likely start doubling as well just to keep up.


    Well, let''s see how much an Orc costs then.


    Four mana is not too bad, and it certainly looks bigger and meaner than the goblin. Perhaps half again as tall? Probably about two giant rats in length. Still has the same problem as the goblin though.


    I wonder if I could send them out to go get real weapons. I have a fair bit of defensive in depth going on here, and it will only be made better if I can properly equip my bigger minions. Even a stout tree branch should be good enough to start with, so I guess I am ready to open up and try to send out my goblin to make better weapons.


    The original stair alcove that I finally managed to pull my core out of seems like the logical entrance.


    ###########


    #vr.#.R#.R##


    ##n.......^#


    ###########


    Now let''s see if I can get this right. (Go out. Make Weapons. Bring Back)


    Good, it''s moving. And that seemed to take a mana, so good to know I have the option, but probably bot cost-effective to use very often.


    Everyone has been up and patrolling for a while, hope it comes back soon. I would not want to spend the rest of my mana on another attempt.


    Seems like a fair bit of light is coming down those new stairs, so there must be something out there.


    Looks like a shadow, perhaps a visitor? Oh, looks like the goblin is back, but now with a bunch of stuff.


    A spear with its knife as the tip, a club stuck through its loincloth, some sort of furry pouch for stones, more stones, and some sort of string-pouch combination that calls forth the name ''Sling''. Should make it much more effective, I think.


    That worked well. I can send that orc out for equipment and give it a bit more living space.


    [Day 11]


    That seemed to work pretty well, the orc has a stack of spears, a shield and a spare, and a stone axe stuck through its loincloth. I wonder if it is hinting that it would be more effective with a partner. Worth a try. That still leaves me enough to finish up my third level like the second, including sending out the new goblin to make some weapons.


    <hr>


    [Jeremy, Year 11, Day 23]


    One day I''m going to be a world renowned hero, leading grand armies and slaying demons and dragons with a single blow! Take that Mr, dragon, and that and That!


    Wait, what was that noise? Mom said there were wolves in these woods, I sure hope it is not wolves, but I had better check.


    Looks like some sort of gnarled green thing, no taller than I am and it is looking for something. I think it is heading towards Mrs. Jones chicken coop.


    This is my chance!


    Jeremy eagerly runs back home and digs out the helmet, spear and shield from when his grandfather came back from the last great war. It is a little tricky to strap on since he is smaller than his grandfather was, but he gets everything more or less attached as he rushes out the door to rescue the chickens from the fearsome monster.


    When he spots it, it seems to be banging together some rocks, and Jeremy manages to sneak up on it and run it through with his spear, just like a great hero! Sure the great hero might not have tripped at the last moment, but he managed to hold on to his spear and poke the goblin through the belly as he fell. The monster tried to throw rocks at him, but he hid behind his shield, and kept jiggling the spear trying to get it free until the rocks and squeals stopped and the spear finally came loose.


    Feeling like a brave hero(with only slightly soiled pants), Jeremy watched as the goblin evaporated into sparkles that seemed to be blowing up-wind until they faded out.


    Jeremy had paid attention to the stories and he knew that meant this goblin was part of a raiding party from a dungeon. A real life Dungeon! If he could find it he could use it for training instead of stupid trees, and then once he was ready to set out and find his fortune, he could sell the location to the exterminator guild for enough to get all the weapons and armor he would need to be the best hero ever!


    He just had to follow where the sparks had pointed and he would have everything he needed!


    It was further than he expected, almost halfway to the next village, but that was all for the good as that meant no one else would find it and destroy it before he was done with it. Sure dungeons were dangerous and killed people, but Jeremy was a hero in training, and he could handle it. He even killed that goblin without a single wound! He would not even keep it forever, just long enough to become a great warrior, then he could let the exterminators get rid of it when he was done!


    It could not even be a very old dungeon or else it would already have been found and destroyed, so he would be fine, right?


    <hr>


    [Intruder Detected]


    Wait, what?


    How are my defenses? Orcs are good, Rats are good, only one goblin though, so the other must still be out, if it is still alive.


    It looks like a human adolescent, no taller than my goblins, but it seems to have a bit of armor with a crest and a nice spear, so it might be just a scouting party.


    Seems fairly clumsy, but it still manages to kill both of my giant rats on the first level without injury. Seems to have tired it out though, and the normal rat managed to sneak up and bite it on the heel, making it stumble and fall.


    Looks like the human can''t stand without using its spear as a crutch, but it seems to be leaving. Not good, I can''t let word get back to the rest of them. I do not know if this will work, but (Everyone! attack and kill the interloper!) Most of them seem to be moving, which is good. The giant rats make it to the top of the stairs about the same time as the goblin coming up from behind them, and manage to tackle the human to the ground with its shield and spear trapped under it. It did not take them long to end the threat, but I am sure I will need more defenses as soon as I can get them.


    Huh, now that it has stopped bleeding and everyone went back to where they came from, the human seems to be turning into sparkles. I feel invigorated. I wonder why.


    [Status, Day 11, Mana 26/26]


    Woah, full mana just like that? Perhaps invaders are not so bad.


    I want more defenses though.


    First replace the second floor defenses but replacing the rat with another goblin, then add an orc to the third floor.


    Add some more space to that last level, and finish with a couple more orcs to reinforce that last level and act as reserves.


    Finally, send out the orc with the axe to make gear for the new orcs and goblin.


    [Day 12]


    Looks like the scavenger orc came back. Looks like all the Orcs now have shields and the goblin now has a couple of wooden spears.


    That feels pretty effective, especially all those orcs guarding my core. I think I want to move behind them however. I think the next level requirement is only three of four more spaces, so digging out the next core nook should take nearly half of my mana. I am not sure why I ended up getting an extra mana today, might be because of my kill count, or perhaps the surface-entrance lets mana in more easily.


    Six mana is unlikely to be enough for the next floor since the last one took nine, but it does not hurt much to check. Oof, Nope, not enough. Hopefully tomorrow then.


    Is this the first time I am spending all day without finishing my mana? Must be, as I did not realize days were this long. The orcs seem to be mostly sleeping in shifts, but the rats seem to spend the first part of the day asleep in that nest, then they come out and wander around their posts around the time light starts coming down the entrance.


    [Day 13]


    Seventeen mana, not quite twice the nine mana cost of the last floor, but enough for a test.


    [Floor Designated, New Defender: Ogre]


    Oh, that sounds nice, but my one remaining mana is not nearly enough to get one out by the feel of it when I try.


    Looks like the next level will take a while, so I might as well start on that last room on my fourth floor.


    ###########


    #vg.#.R#.R##


    ##n.......^#


    ###########


    ###########


    #^R.#R.#.g##


    ##........v#


    ###########


    ###########


    #v.O#.R#.R##


    ##........^#


    ###########


    ##########


    #^OO#OO#.###


    ##........v#


    ###########


    ###


    #o##


    #.^#


    ####


    [status, Day 13, mana 0/32, size 65, Core 11, next floor progress: 6%]


    [Intruder Detected]


    Oh, nice, I could really use the extra mana.


    Wow, these intruders look really professional. They read as humans, but all I can see is a jointed metal skin with a white tabard over the torso with two halves of a black circle on either side of a lightning shaped cut-out from the circle. Perhaps a lightning bolt passing in front of an orb, but you cannot see the rest of the lightning because it matches the background?


    In any case, they each have a sword on their hip with a big shield and a long spear in their hands. The six of them are formed up in two lines that fully take up the width of my corridor, fitted tightly enough that I doubt even my original rat could fit through, just a small cut-out for the spears with the second set of spears resting on the tops of the shields of the front row.


    Yea, that first rat did not stand a chance, it had two spears through it before it could even get close, and now that those six are moving into the room, there are more invaders coming behind them. The next three have bows and only have heavy leather clothing, exposing their faces and parts of their hands.


    Behind them come two people wearing lighter leather and carrying staves, followed by another metal covered guy with a sword out instead of a spear. Oddly enough, that last one seems to mostly be walking backwards.


    The second rat fares no better than the first, and even though the goblin''s spear is shorter than the length of the invader spears in front of their shields, it gets hit by two arrows to the chest and goes down.


    Then one of the staff invaders holds up their staff and shoots the nest with something that quickly burns it to ashes.


    Wow, these invaders really seem to know what they are doing.


    On the second floor, the goblin with the sling manages to get off one shot before getting hit by three arrows, unfortunately, the stone just shattered against the wall of shields, not even leaving a mark.


    On the third floor, the orc manages to catch two arrows on it''s shield before taking a third arrow to the knee, only to be finished off by the spears that are so terribly efficient against the giant rats.


    At least it looks like the arrows in the shield got damaged or something as they do not bother to pick them up as they pass.


    Hopefully the four orcs making up my last line of defense can bottle-neck them at the stairs, making them give up and go home.


    They do manage to bottle-neck them, but the staff intruder that burned down the nest comes forward and explodes the entire first room, with the metal armored invaders still in it.


    It was a pretty big blast as it killed all four orcs and even seemed to injure the front shield holders.


    Not for long though, as the other staff holder comes forward after the room is secured and covers them in a white light until even the scorch marks on their armor are gone.


    When they get down to my core in the nook on the last floor, the sword invader in the back runs back to the entrance before coming back down with four more invaders carrying an ornate chest with sticks coming out of the front and back by holding the sticks on their shoulders.


    That chest gives me a strong sense of foreboding. I am fairly certain that that chest has a large, ornate gold-colored hammer that I want nothing to do with. I don''t know why I think that, and the only other thing that I can think of is that if that hammer touches me there will be a deep, soul-sucking agony.


    Once the chest carriers put the chest down at the foot of the stairs, everyone but the swordsman retreats up the stairs before the swordsman opens up the chest, and I start feeling as if life is being sucked out of me.


    When he lifts up the cursed hammer of my fears, the feeling intensifies, with cracks forming throughout my core.


    When the invader turns to face my core with the hammer, I know with every fiber of my being that the closer that hammer gets, the worse it will be, and if it touches me again, there will be nothing left.


    In a blind panic, I try desperately to flee from the on-coming hammer, letting go of all other considerations.


    In my attempt to escape, I stop struggling to hold my core together against the cracks suffusing it, allowing it to fall to pieces as the invader holding the hammer takes its first step.

 Welcome back?

    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 14.0536%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Restoration complete</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 25.8327%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Floor Designated, New Feature: Mana Grass</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 5.19903%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Day 12</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Wait, what? I remember letting go and my core falling apart. Where am I?


    #####


    #p.p#


    #.R.#


    #p.p#


    ##.######


    #...#...#


    #.oR.T..#


    #...#R..#


    ######.##


    #...#R..#


    #.^.....#


    #...#...#


    #########


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 24.2892%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">


    status Day 12, Mana: 9/24 Size: 49, Core: 8


    Defenders: Rat, Giant Rat


    Traps: Sleep gas


    Features: Rebirth, Nest, Prison, Mana Grass


    next floor progress: 21%


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This looks like a new approach. I kind of sort of remember doing some of this stuff, but not really?


    I guess I was sort of in a fugue or something.


    I am sure I remember having different traps, and a lot more monsters, even if the details are pretty fuzzy.


    I never considered adding on to the middle instead of the ends, but it does seem a lot safer that way. I also never tried adjusting designations of existing floors. That makes it a lot easier to put my core right where I want it.


    Ok, I know more or less where I am and what is going on, but how did I come back? I am guessing that this ''rebirth'' feature is how, but considering all of the bits and pieces that went missing when I shattered, I really do not think I want to be relying on that sort of thing. I am pretty sure that if I lost that rebirth feature I would either not come back, or I would only come back that one last time.


    Now, moving forward, what does this Mana Grass do? Let''s put some out and see.


    I put it in the corner of the trap room, and it looks like it is covering a couple floor areas for a couple mana. Looks like it sort of glows a little bit, perhaps it works as a light source? Not sure why I would want that as my defenders seem to see just fine in the dark and holding a torch reduces the number of serious weapons attacking my defenders.


    Speaking of defenders, I was terribly out-matched by those people wearing the circle with a lightning bolt through it. Also that giant magical hammer they had felt a little like when I try to spend more mana than I have, except instead of an unpleasantly tugging on my insides, it felt like it was ripping my insides out of me.


    I should see if I can find a way to avoid that part of the dying if I can. Not that I want to die, but that part was by far the worst of it.


    Too bad I already have an entrance, as they seemed to have problems finding me until I opened up to the world.


    Then again, I have been open for far longer here than I was at the last place, so either I am farther away from outsiders, or not sending out defenders to make weapons makes me harder to find.


    In any case, the current size and the floor progress agree that I just got my third new floor, so I have a lot of digging to do to get my next floor. My core and daily mana seem to agree that I lost some of that when I died as well. If that keeps going down when I die, then I may not have too many more opportunities even if I never lose rebirth.


    I think I remember worrying about mana when I got the prison, sleep trap, and mana grass, so clearly gaining floors can do more than give me new defenders.


    Perhaps taking prisoners gives some mana and not just killing people. That may be something to try with my next invader(if they do not have those white tabards with the lightning-ball on them at least).


    Looks like I''ll need just two more mana to finish the initial loop, then a third to close the old passage.


    #####


    #p.p#


    #.R.#


    #p.p#


    ##.######


    #...#..,####


    #.oR.T.,##.#


    #...#R..##.#


    ######.###.#


    #...#R..##.#


    #.^........#


    #...#...####


    #########


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 32.9001%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">status Day 12, Mana: 10/28 Size: 56, next floor progress: 58%</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Hmm, looks like that grass gave me an extra mana today, which is nice.


    May take up a fair bit of space, but I should be able to have enough grass to start each day with my mana full.


    Not that I should put all my mana into that. Might be nice to put a bunch into it, but I can''t neglect my defenses either.


    Putting about half of may available mana feels responsible, so I''ll finish the new loop, close the old passage, throw a new sleep trap in the exit from the stairs room, then add half a dozen areas of grass.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 11.6978%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1); border-color: rgba(186, 55, 42, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Really? I want nothing to do with intruders. I finally have a good way to get mana without them and they want to come and mess it all up?


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    At least there only seems to be one. Looks like another small one. I do not really need the mana for killing it right now, and that might be what brought the lightning-ball people, so perhaps I can scare it off?


    Oh, it found the sleeping trap. I guess that works. And the jail-rat started moving? I was kind of wondering why I would want a rat guard with no prisoners, but if it is going to collect prisoners from the sleeping traps, that makes sense.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 11.6978%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1); border-color: rgba(186, 55, 42, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    What again? Looks like three of them this time. There is no light coming down the stairs but it is not yet the next day, so early in the night.


    Still no real weapons, but one of the larger invaders has a light source and the other has a heavy looking stick.


    Looks like the sleep trap got the stick invader, but the slightly smaller invader ran in to grab the stick human and half-drag them out of the trap before the jail-rat could get there.


    Now both non-stick invaders are helping the previous stick-invader out of my dungeon. Good to see them going away.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 4.95532%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Day 13</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That extra mana grass should have put me at thirteen mana for today, let''s take a look at my bounty!


    #####


    #p.p#


    #.R.#


    #p.p#


    ##.######


    #...#,,,####


    #.oR.T.,...#


    #...#R,,##.#


    ##########.#


    #...#R..##.#


    #.^.T......#


    #...#,.,####


    #########


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 41.0236%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">status Day 13, Mana: 21/28 Size: 57, next floor progress: 63%, Prisoners 1/4</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Wait, what? Either that grass gets much better the more you have, or having a prisoner has a major mana impact, what eight mana? That is as much as my normal daily mana without the grass or exit. Not as good as maxing out my mana for killing them, but clearly a good source of mana!


    If I spent most of it on grass, I could start with max mana tomorrow, but I still have a long way to go for the next floor, so I''ll stay balanced, ten new grass and the rest in expanding. Not enough to get the next floor today, but I should have plenty tomorrow.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 11.6978%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1); border-color: rgba(186, 55, 42, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Again? I guess more prisoners might be nice, but I don''t need or want you. Just go away!


    There are a lot of them this time, a few of them carrying lanterns or torches, but the rest carrying pitchforks, slings, or hoes. Probably not professionals like the people with the hammer, but a lot more of them for all that, and my defenses are not nearly as strong.


    Then again the sleep traps do not need to be very strong, so let''s see how they deal with those.


    One of the hoe-wielders steps into the sleep trap and shuffles around a bit until it goes off, but it does not seem to have much effect. Possibly because of the cloth they are holding to their faces? Well, perhaps the giant rats can chase them off?


    When the first rat approaches the one with the hoe, it gets hit with three stones, two to the head and one to the side. The stone to the side does not do much, but the two to the head make it stumble and shake its head while the hoe and a pair of pitchforks take it out.


    That is not promising.


    Then they do something strange, they go behind where the rat was, play around with the lights and then start doing something to my mana grass.


    A few minutes later, they pick up a piece of the mana grass big enough to make a bed for a normal rat, and a few of them take it and leave.


    The rest check the next rooms, turning around when they see the giant rat in the room before my core room.


    Then they go back and start poking at the rest of the mana grass in the rooms out of sight of the rat. There are a few of the invaders who are being loud and vigorous in their discussion, but in the end they just go and lay in wait for the giant rat. I suppose I could order it to go and attack them, but if they decide to leave, that is fine by me.


    A while later some of those that left come back with baskets and they start loading them up with chunks of my mana grass. This is unfortunate, because none of it has even paid for itself yet, but I suppose it is easier to give up that grass than to risk dying for good this time.


    While the invaders are working on my grass, and they really do seem to want all of it, I manage to call my three remaining rats to my core and try to tell them to defend me and not attack unless invaders attack or get too close. I have no idea if it worked, but they are still staying close


    Once they have harvested all of the grass in my first few rooms, they come around the corner and have guards on the passage between the room next to my core and the other room that still has grass in it. When they advance into the room next to my core, they find my second sleep trap, but it is no more effective than the first one was, and they have several invaders with pitchforks ready to attack the rats should they charge at them while they get the last of my mana grass.


    Perhaps now that they can see that they have taken all of my grass they will leave me alone.


    They finally start using their lights to look around my core room from the passage, keeping a close eye on my three remaining rats. There is another loud discussion and some of the pitch-fork holders slowly walk along the wall of my core room towards my jail with their pitch-forks pointed at my last few giant rats.


    I am hoping that they will quickly see that I have no grass in my jail and leave, but no, there is a bunch of yelling and hitting each other when they enter my prison and the cell pops open, letting out my prisoner.


    Must they take everything? I will not even be able to replace all the grass they took at this rate, and what if they come back and take my new grass?


    When my former prisoner comes into my core room, it points and yells at my rats, grabbing the pitchfork from one of the others and throwing it at us.


    The rats manage to chase all of them out of my dungeon, but at great cost, as only one of them lives long enough to limp back and resume guarding my core.


    I did not even manage to kill any of them, which would have allowed me to replace my lost grass and defenders.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 11.6978%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1); border-color: rgba(186, 55, 42, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Again? It is dark out, so at least the day is almost over, and there are only five of them this time.


    I guess they are coming back to see if they left me any of my grass so they can correct their mistake.


    It is pretty obvious that there is no grass left in any of the rooms before my core, and they quickly approach my core room with my only remaining defender.


    They try to throw stones at it from outside the core room, and when it goes to try and defend itself, it gets pinned to the ground by pitchforks from either side before getting its head bashed in by a hammer.


    I am leery about the hammer, but it is nothing like the cursed thing that was painful to even look at. Instead it is a simple iron head with a wooden handle, more of a tool than a weapon, but clearly it can serve as both.


    After checking my prison(again!) they come and make noises at my core, sort of like the noises they made at the other invaders previously, but I have neither the interest nor the ability to respond to them, so I just wait for them to go away.


    Distracted by trying to determine what I should do with the next days mana, I do not even notice what they are doing until one of them raises the hammer above their head for another strike. Unlike the cursed hammer, I feel nothing, even though I can see cracks starting to form in my core.


    Well, if I am going to need to start all over, at least they are not torturing me like the lightning-ball people did.


    Final layout before invaders:


    #####


    #p.p#


    #.R.#


    #p.p#


    ##.##########


    #...#,,,#,,,#


    #.cR.T.,....#


    #...#R,,##..#


    ##########.##


    #...#R,,#,..#


    #.^.T.......#


    #...#,,,#,,,#


    #############

 Trying not to die, again.

    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 17.6232%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">


    Restoration complete


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Day 1</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Clearly cursed hammers of doom are not the only way to lose a dungeon. Let''s see what I lost.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(52, 73, 94, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    ###


    #o#


    ###


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 40.85%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">


    status Day 1, Mana: 1/1*, Size: 1, Core: 8


    Defenders: Rat, Giant Rat


    Traps: Sleep gas


    Features: Rebirth, Nest, Prison, Mana Moss


    next upgrade progress: 7%


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Huh, so I still have everything except the dungeon structure itself. Not even any time lost to a fugue. That cursed hammer is apparently worse than I thought. Once I have some mana to play with, I should see about some sort of escape hatch in case the cursed hammer people show up again, if the hammer sucks out my rebirth, then they can kill me for real, and it is very much worth losing my dungeon progress to avoid actually dying.


    So, let''s see what we can do without any surface entry at all then.


    First we need to get our max mana above our core, so the first couple days will mostly be digging out space, and since I like how spacious those larger rooms were, I''ll go with the 3x3 setup. And at the end of the second day, I''ll see about getting a more firmly rooted mana grass that cannot just be pulled up and taken away.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 9.74553%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Day 2</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Should just be able to gain my second upgrade today.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(52, 73, 94, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">#####


    #...#


    #.o.#


    #...#


    ##.##


    #..#


    #..#


    #..#


    ####</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 42.5555%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Feature: Mana Tree</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    There was a twitch and a twinge, like trying to look past the severed end of a passage lost to a landslide.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 80%; background-color: rgba(52, 73, 94, 1); border-color: rgba(126, 140, 141, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">


    But no, all my floors seem to be fine, or at least the few dozen on the edges where such damage might take place.


    Now, what was I working on? Oh, right, my counterpart suggested that the newbie area needed a few more rooms with larger numbers of normal rats before they start facing the giant rats. I thought that half a dozen normal rats would be harder to fight than a single giant rat, but apparently larger numbers of small rats are easier to face, even if they are harder to kill. Does not make any sense to me, but thankfully understanding visitors is not part of my role, and so I am more than happy to leave that to my counterpart.


    There was another twitch and a twinge, and


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 12.5068%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Day 3</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Um, visitors? Counterpart? At least edge-levels make sense, once I get big enough that is, but those other thoughts had a strange and disturbing flavor to them.


    Oh, yes, finding out how much these trees cost. Oof, four mana is a lot, but at least they do not seem to need to be in pairs like the grass.


    I can only really afford one today and still be able to dig out enough space for the tree to be useful.


    There was a twinge and something was different.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 80%; background-color: rgba(52, 73, 94, 1); border-color: rgba(126, 140, 141, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">


    I am not sure what was different as my counterpart was in their reward giving form, same as usual, giving some sort of trinkets to the relatively weak visitors that nonetheless managed to get to the false core at the end of the training area.


    I much prefer the defender form as that is big and strong and can do many things to chase off misbehaving invaders, but the other form is no taller than my pedestal, to make them think of small versions of themselves, something about invaders making other invaders make them want to protect smaller invaders I think? Then the rewards form is shaped like the type of invader that can make other invaders because this makes most invaders that come in want to protect it for some reason. Finally there are completely useless wings that flutter on the back of that form, something about being less scary for having wings when the form moves around off the ground?


    It seems completely nonsensical to me, but so do most things about invaders. Fortunately my counterpart handles all that, and all I need to do is dig, build, and manage the mana so that the dungeon grows as it should and my counterpart has access to what is needed for any interactions.


    There is twinge and a feeling of change and then,


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 12.7504%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Day 4</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(52, 73, 94, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">#####


    #...#


    #.o.#


    #...#


    ##.##


    #...#


    #._.#


    #...#


    ##.##


    #.#


    ###</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 76.8914%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Status Day 4, Mana: 9/10, Size: 21, Core: 9, next upgrade progress: 40%</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Having an ally with both the ability to understand and communicate with invaders would probably be more useful than I can guess. I wonder what happened to them?


    Now, where was I? Checking on the tree.


    No mana yet, perhaps it takes a second tree to generate mana like the grass does. It does seem a lot bigger than when I put it down though, the grass did not really change. In any case, I should have more information tomorrow.


    Thinking of tomorrow, I wonder what happened to my counterpart.


    I feel the twinge of crossing into a broken memory and then


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 80%; background-color: rgba(52, 73, 94, 1); border-color: rgba(126, 140, 141, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.5619%">


    my counterpart is telling me about a group heading towards my real core. They may be a group of dungeon-killers that got their hands on a cursed weapon that will prevent invaders and even a dungeon core from being brought back if it gets destroyed by that weapon.


    That sounded awful. I had had some particularly nasty invaders try to smash my core from time to time, and they even managed to smash my real core a couple times early on, but my counterpart was able to use the dungeon mana to bring me back both times.


    As complementary halves of a whole, I cannot imagine trying to function without my counterpart and I have no doubt they feel the same. It is almost a relief that I am the half that is being targeted, as I can''t imagine trying to run a dungeon without the optimized templates, development plans, or even knowing what all the options can do before I designate a new region. How would I even know what my core advancement options are?


    My thoughts are interrupted when the invaders, ignoring my counterparts offers of a reward, pull an ominous feeling golden hammer from the chest they had been carrying. Even from across the room, I can feel it starting to suck away the substance of my very being.


    My counterpart, no doubt expecting this to happen, flickers from the rewards form to the guardian form and rushes forward to attack the one pulling out the hammer. My counterpart is then frozen in place by shimmering prismatic beams from the magic users.


    The hammer wielder steps up to the frozen form of my counterpart, says something with a nasty voice and starts smashing the hammer into my counterpart, and with each blow, I can not only feel the pain and terror of my counterpart, but I can also feel large chunks of my counterpart ripped out and devoured from within.


    I am not the one that reacts to things, I do not know what to do, I do not even know what I CAN do. And then with a final blow, my hollowed out counterpart shatters into flakes, leaving me truly alone for the first time.


    Filled with pain and anger, I bring forth everything that I have to smite this evil and


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I feel the twinge of the shattered edge of memory.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 15.1056%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Day 5</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(52, 73, 94, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">#####


    #...#


    #.o.#


    #...#


    ##.##


    #...#


    #.t.#


    #...#


    ##.##


    #...#


    #._.#


    #####</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 42.7991%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">Status Day 5, Mana: 10/13, Size: 26, next upgrade progress: 73%</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Well, now I know what happened to my counterpart and that my entire existence consists of an unimaginable nightmare scenario for my old self. It''s probably for the best that I am not that old self. Sure, it has been a bit lonely, but I am actually doing pretty well for what I have to work with. Yes, those dungeon killers are probably trying to suck me dry with that cursed hammer, but, against all odds, I am not dead yet, and, if I can figure out how to smash my core on command, I even have a way to escape should those evil people show up to try to kill me again. I am pretty sure they are not prepared for a dungeon that can escape and grow stronger every time they show up to kill me.


    But for now, I think I''ll focus on hiding so that they do not find me before I am ready for them.


    Oh, right, I should check on those trees too.


    The first tree has a bunch of leaves that shimmer like the grass did, but the second tree is only the 1-day-old size and the leaves do not shimmer at that age. That shimmer makes me think that trees need to grow before they give any mana, so if that is correct, I should get two mana from the trees tomorrow. I can''t afford both a tree and an upgrade so I''ll go with the upgrade for today to keep this tree question simple. Who knows, perhaps they just keep growing and I''ll need multiple rooms for each tree to avoid wasting mana.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 43.6113%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Feature: Secret Passages</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That will be handy, but it does not seem like I have enough mana left to place one just yet.


    I think I will dig out the area to where the next tree would go, and try to focus on learning what happened after my counterpart was destroyed, perhaps it ill give me an idea on how to stop them again, as clearly I would not be here now had I not stopped them.


    <twinge>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 80%; background-color: rgba(52, 73, 94, 1); border-color: rgba(186, 55, 42, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.5619%">


    I am VENGANCE, I am FURY, I am the Rightous Smack-Down that will avenge the loss of my counterpart.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    I am deflected, I try again, trying to smite the staff wielder that kept me from smiting the hammer wielder.


    I am deflected and batted away as I feel the link to my source severed as it is devoured and destroyed.


    I am drifting, aimless, formless, without purpose, thought, or memory.


    I encounter something, it feels like a memory. It is wrong but it can be made right. The ball of rock with air and crystals inside should be filled. It needs to be all crystal, and it needs to be configured just like so.


    The structure is right now, and I am almost spent, but there is still something missing. There is no animating spark. There is no one there.


    I press inside to fill the void. I am now something new, but also something old. My memory is gone, but I am making new memories.


    I am now a dungeon core.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <twinge>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 10.4764%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Day 6</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%; background-color: rgba(52, 73, 94, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.5619%">#####


    #...#


    #.o.#


    #...#


    ##.##


    #...#


    #.T.#


    #...#


    ##.##


    #...####


    #.t....#


    #...####


    #####</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 43.9361%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%">Status Day 6, Mana: 13/16, Size: 32, core: 10, next upgrade progress: 13%</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Oh, so I guess those other memories were not really me, just bits of the old core that spawned me by accident as it tried and failed to strike back against its killers.


    I wonder if I could deliberately spawn new cores. If I could maintain a link to them, we could work together to find the home-base of the core killers and then... do something.


    In any case, it will take a lot of time before I can get to the point where I can start hunting them down, but perhaps I can start working towards that once I have a secure means of escape.


    Ok, I was not actually expecting that. Both trees now have shimmering leaves, and the older tree, which may or may not be slightly taller and fuller also has some sort of shimmering fruit on it. Judging from my mana pool, that fruit increases the mana generation of the tree. This means that the tree is just as mana efficient as the moss, but takes longer and takes less space. I suppose that is a reasonable trade-off, especially if invaders can''t take the entire plant. The trees look bigger than invaders, so I am guessing they will need more than just baskets and hoes if they want to try.


    If the trees keep growing, I''ll need to rethink my strategy, but I have a spot for the next tree already dug out, so put that in place and see how much it costs to hide the entrance to my core room. Three mana, more than I expected, but very much worth it if it works. Still plenty of mana left to dig a passage to the middle of the next room and give the newest sapling some space.


    Before I finish up, Is there anything else that I might need from the old memories? Perhaps a weapon I can use against the core killers?


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 80%; background-color: rgba(52, 73, 94, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    Decorative coloration and patterns is NOT a useless upgrade! It can have a great impact on the mood and feeling of an area! If you want useless upgrades I can list off a few of those! How about core trap? That upgrade allows you to blow up your own core.


    Or, if you are a little less suicidal, you can use it to blow up secondary or trap cores. It can even excavate, just buy an expensive trap core, place it next to a wall and use it to blow up the three adjacent wall spaces instead of spending three mana to do the exact same thing!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 34.5154%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Day 7</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(52, 73, 94, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">#####


    #...#


    #.o.#


    #...#


    ##S##


    #...####


    #.T.##.#


    #...##.#


    ##.###.#


    #...##.##


    #.T..._.#


    #...##.##


    ########</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 61.072%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Status Day 7, Mana: 14/19, Size: 38, next upgrade progress: 53%</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That sounded like a disagreement, but it also seemed to have a lot of useful information about possible upgrades.


    I think I have spotted a problem. Each of those 3x3 rooms gives roughly five max mana and I am only adding two mana generation per room. The trees are a little bit bigger than their space, and it feels wrong placing them against a wall unless I focus on how the wall will be gone soon. Hopefully I can place them next to each other, and if I make the rooms 4x4 that is just over eight mana per room and four trees in the middle will produce eight mana.


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    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Status Day 7, Mana: 4/22, Size: 44, next upgrade progress: 93%</td>


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    Adjacent feels like a bad idea when I try it, but diagonal feels fine.


    In fact if I string together a bunch of diagonals, I could make a big grove area with room for as many trees as I need to top off my mana every day.


    Only enough mana for a second tree for today, but tomorrow I can do the next floor and plant some more.


    Now, before I dig out the space for that last tree, what do I want to focus on as far as trying to access the memories of my predecessor?


    That core trap option should make it easy to make sure I never get hit by that hammer again. Once I have that I could pick up false cores to make the dungeon slayers think they killed me when my real core is hiding behind a secret passage.


    I am not sure what I might want to plan for after that though. Perhaps a way to start up a new dungeon before I lose my current one, so that I can get a much faster start? That could be good if it is available. I think I will focus on that for todays down-time


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%">But that is one of the benefits of having a sub-core, it acts as a link to the area so that it will still be part of the dungeon even if they are separated by solid walls. You could dig a passage hundreds of spaces long, spawn a sub-core at the end, then fill it all in, and you would still be able to build in the area around the sub-core because it is still part of your dungeon, even if none of the space between belongs to you any more. This can even be advisable when your core gets advanced enough that you need to space your sub-cored further and further apart to maximize their mana collection, but you do not want to provide convenient passages for seekers between your different sections. This can also help split up mana flows, to improve your mana flows.</td>


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    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Day 8</td>


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    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">status Day 8, Mana: 15/22, Size: 45, New upgrade available</td>


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    Not quite what I was hoping for, but at least a step in the right direction. Then again, I probably should not be surprised that my predecessor never had a way to deliberately create a back-up core, as it never expected to die for longer than it took its counterpart to bring it back again.


    Now, for today let''s start with the third upgrade for nine mana and a focus on core trap.


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    Upgrade Complete, New Feature: Trap Core


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    Huh, not what I expected, but that leaves me with just enough to dig out the space for a new tree as well. It may be a little cramped, but it will have space before it grows.


    Now for my daily delve into dungeon capabilities, I want to know how my predecessor managed to launch a coherent chunk of mana with a purpose and the ability to guide itself. I am pretty sure that can be done with spells, but Dungeons cannot cast spells, that would be counter-productive, sort of like an invader tearing off their own leg to use as a club. Sure it might work, but it would be self-destructive and generally not be very effective.


    While I could see a self-destructive attempt to ''drown an enemy with your life''s blood'' sort of effort in that circumstance, it would generally just dissipate, even without being blocked by wards, and it surely would not turn and try a new target after failing to strike the first. So if I can figure out how to they made a cohesive mana structure, that might let me launch a proto secondary core to form somewhere outside my current dungeon, and perhaps even quite a ways outside. Assuming it is possible to replicate my origination deliberately.


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    Scene after scene of invaders blowing rings, some with pipes or other smoking implements, others just using cold air, and finally, it occurs that they are creating a blob and then blowing through the middle of that blob to create an expanding ring rolling as if that puff of breath was the start of a long stick passing through the middle of the ring, making it roll from the inside to the front to the outside, making the ring stretch and dissipate.


    But mana can hold together a little bit better, and if you make the push in a ring on the outside of the blob, you can create a ring that is rolling forward instead of backwards, and let the pressure of the external mana keep it closer together and more coherent, letting it travel much further, if more slowly than the smoke rings. If you add just a bit of will, it can make one side to rotate faster against the external mana, letting the entire ring turn directions and guide itself.


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    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Day 9</td>


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    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">status Day 9, Mana: 19/23, Size: 47, core: 11, next upgrade progress: 11%</td>


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    I was just noticing, my predecessor seemed to spend a great deal of effort in preparing for and interacting with invaders.


    Why? Is it just the mana from killing them or holding them prisoner? If the mana from killing an invader completely refills even a very large pool, I could see that as an incentive, but surely the cost of creating replacement defenders each time they get killed would take most or all of that mana, especially if it did not happen very often compared to the number of invaders. Perhaps I can discover why that is after I dig out thee space for the next three trees.


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    D: Hey DC! Something weird just happened.


    DC: Oh, what happened, a summoner with a new type of pet?


    D: no, my mana ticked up in the middle of the day


    DC: let me check ... yep that would make sense, with that new group you currently have nearly thirty guests, so you should now be getting manna every hour based on the number of guests divided by the number of hours in the day


    D: so no more bump to daily mana for invader-days spent in the dungeon?


    DC: no, you should still get any remainders at the day-change, this just makes it so you are less likely to lose mana to your cap when you get popular with the locals.


    D: good to know, I''ll adjust my expenditures to account for this change, although if this continues I will likely need more spawners to keep up.


    DC: it affects the spawner rate too, every four mana you gain this way also refreshes the spawners as if it were a new day, if the rate gets high enough, they can even refresh more than once per hour.


    D: That explains why the goblin entry-way plan you gave me has so few spawners, I was expecting I would need to add more to that soon.


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    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Day 10</td>


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    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">status Day 10, Mana: 22/27, Size: 54, next upgrade progress: 47%</td>


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    That... suggests that there are some very foundational aspects of being a dungeon about which I am completely ignorant.


    I should do my best to focus on early interactions, introductions, and tutorials for the next several days, or perhaps weeks.


    Considering fundamentals, I have been pushing pretty hard on building trees and clearing out just enough space for those trees, but now that I am looking at them, those irregular spaces on the sides of the room do not sit well with me when I take time to consider them. Clearly I should smooth them out and make my tree room a proper four-space wide passage.


    Then, once it is regular, I can consider making it five-wide and add in an extra row of trees to make up for some of the less tree-efficient spaces of the dungeon.


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    Hmm, I get a strong sense that making that room 5x5 will make something collapse, but I do not get that feeling if I leave that one area for support.


    So, with just that last point to spend, I am thinking that if I want to get the 101 on dungeons, I should try focusing on the first meeting between my predecessor and their counterpart.


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    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">Day 1</td>


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    Good morning and happy birthday!


    You are a dungeon core, your purpose is to train heroes while you cleanse and revitalize the mana of the world around you.


    I am your counterpart, and while you are skilled at manipulating the physical world through your mana, I am your guide and connection to the sum of all accumulated knowledge!


    I will provide you with tips and recommendations to maximize your potential and ensure you get the maximum value out of every point of mana!


    Now you may think you have some ideas for a highly efficient layout but I can guide yo to the most efficient layouts ever devised for any purpose you can imagine!


    I have optimized advancement paths for any type of dungeon you want to present to the world, even paths that optimize for multiple distinct apparent dungeons which hide the fact that they all have the same core.


    I can guide you in optimizing your distinct mana paths to optimize either your impact on the local mana, or to maximize the amount you can skim from the flows to grow your dungeon as quickly as possible!


    I have vast repositories of skinning collections to let you develop a distinct flavor for your domain, adjusting the appearances for not just your structures, but also your defenders and even adjustments that can be applied externally to ensure all your seekers feel exactly the way you want them to feel!


    Do you want to inspire a feeling of dawning dread? Keep their adrenaline pumping with frequent jump-scares? Put them off their guard with a bright and cheery demeanor?


    I can help you do all that and more!


    Might I suggest-


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 Memories of growth

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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 11</td>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 11, Mana: 26/36, Size: 72, New upgrade available</td>


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    That ... was something.


    But other than that bit at the beginning, I cannot see how any of that diatribe was anything other than bragging on the part of the counterpart, being all excited that it has access to lots of information. It gives me an impression similar to that first intruder I killed, bold but clueless.


    Perhaps there will be something useful in the next session.


    Huh, I was so focused on planting lots of trees I almost did not notice I am large enough for another upgrade.


    Let us see if I can get core Trap this time, perhaps Trap Core is a prerequisite or something.


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Feature: Core Trap</td>


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    Well, that worked. I suppose it makes sense that having a Trap core would be needed so core trap is not lethal to use.


    At least I have enough mana left to make the room square(except for that support) and add in the last two trees for that third row.


    Before I finish that up, what sorts of memory should I try to focus on? Earliest memories were kind of a bust, and while I can use that as a last-resort, other things have been much more useful. But what to focus on? I already have ideas for what I want from secondary cores, and even some ideas my predecessor never had reason to consider, but I know nothing about spawners except they usually refresh daily and may refresh faster with lots of invaders. From the name, I suspect they are not particularly useful for my particular approach, but I don''t really know anything else about them. Mana flows are probably why my mana per day goes up when I open up an entrance, there might even be ways to improve that. What else was mentioned? Manipulating the world through mana is clearly how I dig, give orders and create things; but there may be more capabilities as my disposal as well. Training heroes is probably ranked below mana flows, it might provide something useful, but probably just means give them monsters to fight and give rewards when they win.


    <Twinge>


    Companion: Mana flows are the primary purpose of a dungeon. When mana stagnates it picks up contaminants and encourages unhealthy things to develop, much like stagnant water, also like water when it is flowing it can cleanse some of that impurity. But nothing can cleanse mana of impurities quite like a dungeon core can. You also naturally pull in unpurified mana, see how your core is twenty? That means you pull in all unpurified mana within twenty spaces of your core, which is about one hundred feet as visitors would call it. It also says how large your core is, so right now you have a diameter of twenty inches, and that will only go up as you grow the strength of your core, letting you pull in and purify more and more mana.


    But that is only the most basic part of mana flow, you can also create entrances to the surface world which will provide a path for mana to flow directly to your core or sub-core, giving a small boost in your daily mana per flow. Generally you will want to have multiple entrances per core to maximize the flow, but you also need to be careful not to let the flows combine, as you can only siphon off a small portion of the purified mana as it flows through your core and gets purified, so several small flows will give you more mana than if they were all combined into one larger flow. Not that larger flows are bad, but it is generally more beneficial to have more smaller flows instead of letting them combine. Now that is a bit of a disincentive to purify as much mana as possible, as it takes more time and effort to set up independent flow paths, but for the more service-minded dungeon, you can increase the size and density of a mana flow coming in through an entrance by claiming a swath of the surface around that entrance. While this can be a less expensive way to grow your mana capacity, as you do not need to remove the surrounding material, it is generally less efficient than digging a path for a new entrance which is far enough away to have independent mana flow.


    That said, a secondary core on the surface and surrounded by a large claimed area can be quite beneficial for growth so long as you do not have visitors coming by to get rewards from the exposed core, but this ''mana garden'' approach is not one I would recommend for a small dungeon, as it would require a significant delay on upgrading your defenders when you do not yet have a strong rapport with the local potential invaders, giving them both an opportunity and incentive to take control of your core and force you to serve them. Even if such an arrangement may seem beneficial at first, invaders can be perfidious and they will eventually turn against you. It is not as if a dungeon core can escape after all.


    <Twinge>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 12</td>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 12, Mana: 32/37, Size: 74, Core: 12 next upgrade progress: 28%</td>


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    Huh, so surface dungeons are a quick route to power at the risk of being enslaved. But unlike other dungeons, I can actually escape if they try, so it might be a good option to pursue if I get found again.


    Also, it feels like those twinges are getting stronger, no signs of damage yet, but if that keeps up, I may need to hold off on delving into those memories unless I have something important that I just cannot figure out.


    It is a little sad that even starting dungeons start with much more than I have even now. On the other hand, I can control what I get, and I have the potential to gain a lot more core advancements than other dungeons, especially with those core hunters


    Now, by my count, I am actually marginally ahead on mana generation once all the trees mature, so I should start moderating my tree planting so that I do not waste mana on overflowing my max.


    The next couple rows and enough trees to keep me near my cap should put me within striking distance of my next upgrade tomorrow.


    I guess spawners would be next, as I do not expect there to be much about how to be a mana spring.


    <Twinge!>


    Companion: Spawners are easy, you just take the home base of the monster and infuse it with enough mana to create four of the monster you want to spawn, then every day it will produce one monster of the appropriate type unless there are already at least two per spawner slot allocated to that defender type on that floor. As an added bonus, if the spawner has not yet created a monster of that type for the day, it can spawn a replacement as soon as the visitors have left the area designated for the floor holding the spawners.


    Core: Home Base? I do not see anything called a Goblin home base.


    Companion: Under your features you should see Nest, Den, and Camp, these are home bases for your starting defenders, nests are for vermin like rats and snakes, dens are for larger predators such as wolves or bears, and camps are for tool using defenders and provide them a place to find or make those tools.


    But they also have utility beyond your basic defenders, as nest, if placed up high, can also spawn flying defenders such as bats or harpies, and camps can be placed next to each other to make larger communities such as villages and towns, this lets the tool users use more advanced tools such as slings and armor. Dens can also be combined to allow larger predators, as a single den can only spawn bear cubs or wolves, but adding them together can allow dire wolves and adult bears, or even larger animals like dire bears or owlbears. Speaking of bats and harpies, the location of the nest is important, bat nests need to be on the ceiling while harpy nests need to be on the wall at least ten feet above the floor. Digging up or down is an option for this, but it is generally preferable to dig out a room that is shared between levels, possibly with a winding staircase along the other walls, making a large, exposed area where the visitors cannot rush without risking a fall, giving the harpies plenty of opportunities to test their mettle.


    <Twinge!>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 13</td>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 13, Mana: 36/45, Size: 90, next upgrade progress: 72%</td>


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    Yep, those twinges are getting stronger. I have no idea if they can actually cause me harm, but I should probably try to cut back and see if they get weaker if I wait a few days.


    It also sounds like starting dungeons have a lot more defender and spawner options to start with than I have.


    Well, the only way to catch-up is with upgrades, and I suspect I might manage one today. I need ten more spaces to be eligible, and then I should have just over half my mana left. It seems like, aside from the first few upgrades, it always takes about half my max mana for the next upgrade, or at least half of the max when I reach the minimum size for the next upgrade. I may need to add in the trees tomorrow, but I should have more than forty mana available to plant them with, at least if my first secondary core does not cost too much.


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Feature: Alternate Entrances</td>


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    What?! again? What does ''Alternate Entrances'' even mean, that I can now have two entrances? Could I not before? I never really tried to have more than one, but that hardly seems as valuable as secret passages or secondary cores.


    I suppose I can see why it would be needed before I could get secondary cores, as more cores are only useful with more entrances, but still, it feels like a bigger rip-off then false cores.


    Only one mana left, so I was right about being roughly half of the max mana when you reach the minimum size for the next upgrade. I''ll try to clear my mind as I dig out the last non-support square to make my tree-room nine by eight spaces.


    <Twinge!>


    Yea, that one is really weird. You start with it because you can''t really be a dungeon without it, just a chain of practically identical rooms leading to a core.


    Alternate Entrances not only allows you to have multiple entrances to draw in mana, but also lets you customize them, anything from a rabbit hole barely large enough for a child to slip through to a grand entrance fifteen feet high and twenty feet across with iron plated doors. This goes for your passages as well. You can also alter the finish of your walls, floors and ceilings to be anything from rough earth and stone to polished marble.


    <Twinge!>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 14</td>


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    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.#...#..T.t...#


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 14, Mana: 43/50, Size: 100, Core 13</td>


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    </table>


    Ok, so being able to make different sorts of entrances and tunnels might prove to be useful, especially if I experiment with the mana-garden approach next time around, and make my entrance look like an unremarkable nest of normal rats, with the core hidden behind a secret door, and possibly behind another hidden passage half way down a narrow but very deep pit.


    On the plus side, not making a conscious effort to drag up specific memories does not seem to have made the pain worse, at least. Perhaps I was just pushing too hard before and I was damaging something.


    One more row should finish the room as an even nine-by-nine and four more trees will put my eventual daily mana just over my max after digging out the room, and still leave me space in the tree room for five more trees before it is full. That should give me some lee-way for trying out some of those alternate passages and level changes.


    I suppose I could try to make the room even larger by leaving in more supports, it is a pretty quick way to grow my mana production after all. I should really consider what other structures I should add once I have plenty of tree space available though.


    <Twinge.>


    The mana garden is an approach where a dungeon primarily cultivates resources instead of defenders. Preferentially resources that can boost mana production, but other types of resources can prove useful as well.


    The standard mana garden approach is to focus on growth and active mana generation to fuel that growth over traps and defenders. This can be very effective for an undiscovered dungeon, but the larger a dungeon grows, the easier it is to detect and also the more likely it is to create an accidental opening. Neglecting to upgrade the core can help with the ease of detection, but not with the eventual likelihood of intersecting with an occupied area. Many types of seekers can tell when they have entered the collection range of a dungeon core, and some seekers have specialized skills or abilities to find cores over long distances. The stronger the core, the easier it is to detect.


    Once a mana garden is found by seekers, it will generally have any available harvestable resources taken and any spawners protecting those resources destroyed. If those resources are not replaced, the seekers will usually try to coerce the core with further suppression, destruction of non-harvestable features, or, in some cases, the application of a control device to the core to prevent mana from being spent in any manner other than as directed by the controller. This usually requires the destruction of the counterpart. Cores fitted with a control device are prone to going insane and will usually be destructive to both themselves and their controllers should that control ever slip. This most often happens when the controller either dies or attempts to pass control to a new controller. Kingdoms have been lost when the controller of a large and important mana garden dies unexpectedly.


    <Twinge.>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 15</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 30%; background-color: rgba(52, 73, 94, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">#####


    #...#


    #.o.############


    #...#..........#


    ##S##.T.T._._..#


    #...#..T.T._...#


    #.T.#.T.T._....#


    #...#..T.#._..##


    ##.##.T.T.T....#


    #...#..T.T._...##


    #.T...T.T.T.....#


    #...#...........#


    #################</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 15, Mana: 47/58, Size: 117, next upgrade progress: 39%</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Either I am tolerating it better, or not trying to force anything in particular seems to be letting whatever was hurting start to recover somewhat. I still seem to be coming up with things relative to what I am doing and seeing, so this is probably the superior option unless there is something I truly need to know right away.


    I wonder what other elements might be useful and how. Mana is very useful, so if there are other things I can use as well, that would be good to know about.


    After I hit fourteen wide, I think I will try adding a section behind the core room that can be separated from the garden area once I put in a secondary core. That bit about accidentally hitting an occupied area suggests that if I intend to keep growing that garden, I should buffer my core from it as much as feasible, so long as I do not end up accidentally creating a new entrance on the opposite side.


    <Twinge>


    Trap Cores present an illusion that should be identical to a real core with the first level of core trap applied to it for all normal and esoteric senses. While the lack of a mana in-flow may reveal a core to be a trap core, application of hidden passages and mana conduits should render this difference imperceptible to all but the most discriminating senses.


    Like core trap, the trap core will generate an explosion in the direction of any attack against the shell of the illusion. When re-applying core trap to a trap core to enlarge the explosion, a trap core counts as starting with a single casting of core trap.


    When in close proximity to a source of elemental mana, a trap core can incorporate that element into the explosion without the need for any additional mana conduits.


    A trap core can also be set to explode in one or more specific directions instead of targeting an attacker as part of a larger trap. When used as part of a larger trap, the base trap core can generally take out a single support pillar, while a single upgrade can allow the trap core to take out a second pillar. Generally a second upgrade is needed to take out three or four support pillars. If a trap core is targeted on fewer supports than allowed by its upgrade level, any remainder can be allocated to the counter-attack.


    Core: that sounds nasty


    Would-be core killers deserve everything they get.


    <Twinge>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 16</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 30%; background-color: rgba(52, 73, 94, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">#####


    #...#


    #.o.##############


    #...#............#


    ##S##.T.T.t.t._..##


    #...#..T.T.t._....#


    #.T.#.T.T.t._.....#


    #...#..T.#.t..#...#


    ##.##.T.T.T._.....#


    #...#..T.T.t._....#


    #.T...T.T.T._.....#


    #...#.............#


    ###################</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


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    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 16, Mana: 53/70, Size: 140, next upgrade progress: 39%</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Ooh that could be really handy, especially in the middle of that huge tree room. If I put a trap core against the newer pillar and then pump it up a few times and try to target the other two pillars that could collapse pretty much the entire room on the fist person to attack the core...


    I''ll do that right after I dig out the last four spaces I need for my next core upgrade. I think it should be half of the seventy two max mana, so I should still have thirteen mana left, I think, and hopefully that will be enough to level up the trap core a couple of times.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Feature: Secondary Cores</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Yes! Finally, now I can make that separated hidey-hole and move into it on my next core improvement.


    Looks like a trap core costs five and powering it up costs another five. It does not feel strong enough to take out that second support yet, but it should at least damage it somewhat.


    <Twinge>


    Secondary cores are the primary means for a dungeon to increase their mana processing and their daily mana recovery.


    Each secondary core will set up an additional mana collection field with up to half the diameter of your primary core.


    Now placing cores closer together will limit their growth, as any sub-core will automatically reduce its collection radius if the radius of either your main core, or of a sub-core currently collecting in a smaller area attempts to enter that collection area.


    An added benefit of spacing your cores well apart from each other is that they can each have multiple mana in-flows to further improve your mana processing and daily mana.


    While it is possible to use sub-cores to maintain disconnected sections of your dungeon, if something happens to such a sub-core, you will lose control of all sections of your dungeon that are not also connected to another core.


    Attempting to place your core where a sub-core is located will cause the two to switch places, otherwise moving a sub-core generally costs about half as much as placing a new one.


    <Twinge>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 17</td>


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    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 30%; background-color: rgba(52, 73, 94, 1)" border="1">


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%"> #####


    ####...#


    #....o.###############


    ####...#.............#


    ##S##.T.T.T.T.t...#


    #...#..T.T.T.t....#


    #.T.#.T.T.T.t.....#


    #...#..T.#.T.x#...#


    ##.##.T.T.T.t.....#


    #...#..T.T.T.t....##


    #.T...T.T.T.t......#


    #...#..............#


    ####################</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


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    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 17, Mana: 66/72, Size: 150, Core 14, next upgrade progress: 8%</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That seems reasonably helpful, especially that switching places bit.


    Although for now, I am more looking at a distant location from which to rebuild, so, now that I have a nook deep enough to both cut off and hide behind a secret passage, I think stairs down then a few spaces to be filled back in later, followed by a rats nest to be made into a spawner and then a bunch of rat-sized tunnels before opening up into a new, and probably smaller tree-room where I can hide my actual core along with some resources to help start building again.


    If I am hoping to get to core twenty in this dungeon, then I probably want about thirty spaces between here and the new core spot, giving plenty of room for the sub-core to collect mana from. So probably twenty five rat tunnels, probably twisting back and forth and up and down a little bit since they do not take up the entire space and that may make them seem more natural.


    So, to balance out all that building I''ll need about eight new trees... I have room for seven, but digging out one more space will make room for the eighth. This mana garden approach really does speed things up a lot.


    <twinge>


    Prisoners and some traps can be an effective way to force invaders to spend additional time in your dungeon, but they are not without risk. Taking prisoners can be just as dangerous as killing an invader, but with the added hazard that the invader themselves can also come back with a vendetta, and not just their survivors. Just as imprisoning could be considered a lesser version of killing, having both less risk and less reward, traps can be considered a lesser version of imprisonment. At least traps that are designed to delay instead of trying to kill, those that may kill still should be considered on the lethal defender axis, but traps that only try to cause delays, like pit or sleep traps, can be considered a lesser form of imprisonment, with both lower risks and lower rewards. That is not to say that a well placed and timed trap cannot delay a group by enough to provide quite a lot of mana, or that a prisoner will stay around long enough to give more mana than most traps, but in the average case, killing causes more problems than imprisoning and delaying with a trap causes fewer problems than imprisoning.


    <twinge>

 Building a grove

    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 18</td>


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    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


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    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">___#####


    ####...#


    #v...o.###############


    ####...#.............#


    ___##S##.T.T.T.T.T._.#


    ___#...#..T.T.T.T._..#


    ___#.T.#.T.T.T.T..._.#


    ___#...#..T.#.T.x#...#


    ___##.##.T.T.T.T..._.##


    ___#...#..T.T.T.T._._.#


    ___#.T...T.T.T.T._._..#


    ___#...#..............#


    ___####################</td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">##################################


    #.-------------------------n....^#


    ##################################</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


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    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 18, Mana: 72/91, Size: 183, next upgrade progress: 75%</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I guess I saw the problems that might be caused by imprisoning first hand in that last dungeon, but that counterpart must have really enjoyed talking if so few of the random snippets I get are anything but monologues, unless perhaps that is due to whatever repository seems to think I should have access to my progenitors memories.


    I guess whatever allows me to keep my memories between dungeons is letting those earlier memories leak through due to being created from the energy of the older dungeon. Unless this sort of thing is normal for dungeons and I am just getting it in a different form due to a lack of a counterpart to relay that information directly.


    If I make the new core room a nine-by-nine room with a support next to the core, that should give me forty six mana plus my core level for rebuilding if I lose my in-process tree-room. That seems like a much better start than ten or twenty mana per day.


    Although that does mean putting off upgrading my core until tomorrow, that is fine, as I need some time to think of what upgrades might be a good idea.


    <twinge>


    Core upgrades


    Every time you sufficiently enlarge your dungeon you become eligible to upgrade your core. This will increase your mana field radius, as well as your daily mana generation, but you also get to add a new type of defender, trap, or feature to your dungeon.


    Most of these upgrades require other upgrades as prerequisites often forming a tree-like structure, for example, the Troll defender requires the Ogre defender which requires the orc defender which in turn requires the goblin defender that all dungeons start with.


    It is generally important to have a long-term plan in mind before choosing core upgrades because each one takes more growth to get than the last and there are practical limitations on how many a dungeon can get due to this increasing cost per upgrade.


    <twinge>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 19</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


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    <td style="width: 49.12%">___#####


    ####...#


    #v...o.###############


    ####...#.............#


    ___##S##.T.T.T.T.T.t.#


    ___#...#..T.T.T.T.t..#


    ___#.T.#.T.T.T.T...t.#


    ___#...#..T.#.T.x#...#


    ___##.##.T.T.T.T...t.##


    ___#...#..T.T.T.T.t.t.#


    ___#.T...T.T.T.T.t.t..#


    ___#...#..............#


    ___####################</td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">__######


    __#....#


    __#.._.#


    ###._..#


    #.._._.################################


    #.#._..-------------------------n....^#


    ##..._.################################


    _##._..#


    __#.._.#


    __#....#


    __######</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 19, Mana: 80/111, Size: 222, next upgrade available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Ok, that was not as helpful as I was hoping.


    So, my primary need is not to let that awful hammer anywhere near me ever again. That should be addressed by the Core Trap, as that will shatter the core at the first hit.


    Except I do not want the hammer to get that close. So I guess I need something else to cause that first hit on command?


    A properly instructed defender could do it, unless the invaders kill it first.


    Pit and spike traps can be combined with each other, but cannot otherwise be placed in the same space as other features.


    My sleep trap refuses to form in the space with the core as well, so presumably that will be the case for all of the traps I can place, so I will need one that can traverse multiple areas.


    A crossbow trap could work, so long as there is nothing in the way. I might need several practice shots to make sure it is aimed correctly however, and considering the wide open layouts I am looking at for my core spaces, something getting in the way would be all too easy.


    If traversing sideways is likely to be blocked, how about up and down?


    I am not sure how something might come up from below, but the pedestal would be in the way in any case, so something coming down from above. Perhaps something falling from a space above the core. If I had doors, I could open up a door with lots of rocks and gravel on it to trigger the Core Trap, assuming I could get my defenders to accumulate the rocks for that.


    There might even be such a thing as a falling rocks trap. Let¡¯s try for that, and if it does not work, I can select goblins for my next upgrade and have them collect rocks while I dig, then select doors and have them place the rocks on those doors.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Trap: Falling Rocks</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That works, so I just dig up above both core locations and place the falling rocks trap over each of them.


    There we go, now both the core trap and the real core can be hit by a bunch of falling rocks on-command.


    Oh, right, I need to trap on the real core to be confident that the falling rocks will destroy it.


    Hmmm, down to twenty points, should I start filling in between the sections? No, wait, I need an actual sub-core in place before I do that. Let¡¯s give it plenty of room and put it inside that trap core illusion.


    <twinge>


    The falling rocks trap is a lower level trap that can be quite effective against those not wearing a helmet and not expecting the trap. While often not very effective by itself, the falling rocks can be dropped onto an incline and cause a rock-slide capable of pushing invaders off of ledges or stairs.


    When used within a natural cavern motif, these traps can encourage invaders to believe that the cavern is unstable or collapsing, especially if several of these traps are triggered as part of the effect.


    <twinge>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 20</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


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    <td style="width: 49.12%">___#####


    ####...#


    #v.....###############


    ####...#.............#


    ___##S##.T.T.T.T.T.T.#


    ___#...#..T.T.T.T.T..#


    ___#.T.#.T.T.T.T...T.#


    ___#...#..T.#.T.o#...#


    ___##.##.T.T.T.T...T.##


    ___#...#..T.T.T.T.T.T.#


    ___#.T...T.T.T.T.T.T..#


    ___#...#..............#


    ___####################</td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">__######


    __#....#


    __#..t.#


    ###.t..#


    #..t.t.################################


    #o#.t..-------------------------n....^#


    ##...t.################################


    _##.t..#


    __#..t.#


    __#....#


    __######</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


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    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 20, Mana: 104/111, Size: 222, Core 15, next upgrade progress: 43%</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Interesting, considering that I intend to use the falling rock traps to trigger core Traps that are targeted on support pillars, I think that will be very convincing that the room is collapsing as it will have a large amount of unsupported roof trying to fall down.


    It also looks like secondary cores are a hefty twenty points each, so I will probably not be getting a lot of those. Then again, that is the same cost as five trees, and once I get my core up to twenty, those cores will provide the same pay-out as those five trees, but with slightly more digging to keep them well separated. Considering that I now have more than forty trees, I may be getting a bunch of secondary cores after all.


    So for today, I need thirty four areas for the next core upgrade, forty to finish the new core room, and then, um, sixty four mana for the upgrade? I can actually do all four of those, if just barely.


    So, if that is the building plan for today, what upgrade would I want? Doors might be useful, even if I do not really have a specific use for them right now, or goblins if I have tasks with hands, but I would probably want to get camps if I get goblins, so I can use spawners.


    Hmm, my feelings suggest that having so many rooms and passages without any doors feels weird, so, as I have no more pressing need, I¡¯ll go with my gut, as it were.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Feature: Doors</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <twinge>


    The Doors feature handles all moveable barriers for limiting line of sight or access between parts of a dungeon or the inside and outside of a dungeon. This includes doors in the floor or ceiling that can be opened to allow vertical movement, entrance doors, puzzle doors, wooden doors, metallic doors, shutters, cabinets, and any other hinged cover that is affixed to a structural element.


    Doors are what elevate a proper dungeon above a mere cave or lair. Dungeon doors are permeable to mana and do not significantly hinder its flow.


    <twinge>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


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    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 21</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


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    <td style="width: 49.12%">___#####


    ####...#


    #v.....###############


    ####...#.............#


    ___##S##.T.T.T.T.T.T.#


    ___#...#..T.T.T.T.T..#


    ___#.T.#.T.T.T.T...T.#


    ___#...#..T.#.T.o#...#


    ___##.##.T.T.T.T...T.##


    ___#...#..T.T.T.T.T.T.#


    ___#.T...T.T.T.T.T.T..#


    ___#...#..............#


    ___####################</td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">###########


    #.........#


    #.......T.#


    #......T..#


    #.....T.T.################################


    #...o#.T..-------------------------n....^#


    #.......T.################################


    #......T..#


    #.......T.#


    #.........#


    ###########</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 21, Mana: 114/131, Size: 262, Core 16, next upgrade progress: 9%</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    To finish securing the new core room, I would want to back-fill all the spaces between the nest and the old core room. That cuts down the total size of my dungeon by eight, so I only need to plant another six trees to approximate my generation with my max mana.


    After that, I guess it is time to get back to that old tree room. First another upgrade on the core trap so it can drop both columns, then back to digging and planting, but putting trees in the new core room first.


    <Crash>


    Ugh, I guess I was warned about this possibility. Looks like the entire hillside collapsed, including most of the overhang back to my last support pillar. At least I did not have anything under that to get smashed. I still have plenty of mana, so I might as well hide those two passages back to my old core room to keep anyone from getting any ideas. I think another upgrade of the Core Trap on the secondary core should be enough to let it reach that third support, but since the doubling has increased the cost of that to twenty points, I can¡¯t do much more than clear a couple paths through the rubble. Good thing the rubble dissipated on my claimed territory and ¡®surface¡¯ claiming takes only half as much mana as digging.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


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    <td style="width: 49.12%">#####_______________##


    #...#_______________#mm


    #...#################mm


    #...#................mm


    ##S##.T.T.T.T.T.T....mmm.


    #...#..T.T.T.T.T.........


    #.T.#.T.T.T.T...T....mmm.


    #...#..T.#.T.o#....#..mm


    ##S##.T.T.T.T...T.....mmm.


    #...#..T.T.T.T.T.T........


    #.T.S.T.T.T.T.T.T.....mmm.


    #...#.................mm


    ######################mm


    _____________________##</td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">###########


    #.........#


    #.!.!.!.T.#


    #..!.!.T..#


    #.!.!.T.T.###########################


    #..!o#.T..-------------------------n#


    #.!.!...T.###########################


    #......T..#


    #.......T.#


    #.........#


    ###########</td>


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    </tbody>


    </table>


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    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 21, Mana: 0/148, Size: 296, next upgrade progress: 59%</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Looks sort of like the group with hoes and pitch-forks, but this time many of them seem to have shovels, and some small carts.


    I guess it was kind of noisy when that hill-side fell down.


    The carts seem to be for collecting stones that fell when the face of the hill fell, as they spent a lot of time collecting the loose rocks from the collapse before noticing the trees inside.


    Fortunately, they seem wary of the dark opening, but unfortunately both the size of the opening and the shimmering of the trees seem to reduce that darkness enough to embolden them to enter.


    The ones with shovels poke at the edges of the remaining ceiling, but seem satisfied that it is stable.


    They seem very interested in the fruit and quickly relieve the trees of their glowing burdens. That will cut their mana production in half, but at least they seem content to just take the fruit and not the entire plant like they did with the grass.


    When they get to the point where they can see the secondary core, they look it over intently, but do not approach closer than the closest trees. They seem worried about the unstable looking roof over the core and make sure to give it a wide berth. As wide as they can without leaving behind any of my fruit that is.


    With all the fruit loaded into one cart and the other loaded down with stones, they seem content to just leave the trees alone, but they do seem to be leaving a couple of the more energetic pitch-fork holders behind to keep poking around.


    The pair spend time pretending to poke each other and the air with their pitchforks, then climb some of my trees, but they seem to be ready to leave once one of them falls out of a tree and lands with their face next to the pitchfork they left on the ground.


    If these trees are going to be without fruits, I am going to want to fill up my core room to make up for the lack, then probably plant some more trees up there as well. At least they do not need to be replaced like the grass does.


    <twinge.>


    Harvesting is almost never worthwhile mana-wise.


    If a resource is deep enough that seekers take time to get there, then it requires skilled defenders that can make more by just questing on their own, and if the resources are shallow enough to be harvested with minimal protection, then any experienced harvesters will be able to get in and out with their desired resources before you can recoup the mana cost of restoring those resources.


    While there are a few mana-garden type resources that can be a net-positive for the dungeon, the dungeon is still usually better off just cultivating the unharvested resources than enticing harvesters to collect those resources.


    Speaking of Mana Garden resources, there are a number of resources that can only be cultivated either by or inside of a dungeon. These are generally only cultivated in dungeons that are actively being suppressed and controlled. Usually this is because of dungeons that take the risky mana garden approach, but any dungeon that shows the capacity to produce those resources is a candidate to have a coercive device mounted onto their core after being suppressed by having all defenders and spawners destroyed.


    Now some specific high-concentration materials can be placed deep inside the dungeon and seekers will expend the effort to retrieve them. Those materials have a very narrow utility, so generally having more than one instance of such a resource is wasteful since only the largest communities of seekers can make use of more than one unit every ten or twenty days. Even then, avoid having more than a few such resources as seekers will gravitate to the dungeon with the easiest path to acquire those materials, once again making this approach have a very dubious return. This is only worsened if you consider the cost of spawners and other defensive resources dedicated to those paths likely to be rarely or never used. Adding rare herbs or resources as part of an existing path, so as to avoid those added costs will just eliminate the value of that resource for other dungeons, as anyone following that other path will just pick up the resource in passing any time there is a need for it.


    <twinge.>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 22</td>


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    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


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    <td style="width: 49.12%">#####_______________##


    #...#_______________#mm


    #...#################mm


    #...#................mm


    ##S##.T.T.T.T.T.T....mmm.


    #...#..T.T.T.T.T.........


    #.T.#.T.T.T.T...T....mmm.


    #...#..T.#.T.o#....#..mm


    ##S##.T.T.T.T...T.....mmm.


    #...#..T.T.T.T.T.T........


    #.T.S.T.T.T.T.T.T.....mmm.


    #...#.................mm


    ######################mm


    _____________________##</td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">###########


    #.........#


    #._._._.T.#


    #.._._.T..#


    #._._.T.T.###########################


    #.._o#.T..-------------------------n#


    #._._...T.###########################


    #......T..#


    #.......T.#


    #.........#


    ###########</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 22, Mana: 81/148, Size: 296, next upgrade progress: 59%</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I have room for six more trees in my core room, then I¡¯ll need to plant in the open area. With my current trees and the contents of my core room, I¡¯ll be almost thirty mana short of full if they come back and harvest every day, so I am going to need a lot more trees. But I should not neglect my core growth either, so perhaps ten trees and the rest to claim enough area for my next core upgrade.


    I was hoping that I could make a really big dungeon this time, perhaps even get my core past the ''starting point'' for normal dungeons, but if I am already exposed, that seems a lot less likely.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Looks like they are back, only about half as many, but twice as many carts between them. A few of them still have slings or pitch-forks, but they seem much less nervous and quite happy that my fruit grew back since yesterday.


    They also seem to be very excited about the things that changed, in particular the number of new plantings. You would almost think they did not know how trees work, except they have plenty of wood in their carts and tools, so presumably they should have some experience with trees as well.


    There does seem to be one heated discussion when one of the fruit harvesters approaches an empty tree with an axe that was hiding in the cart, but the axe gets put away and the trees remain unmolested once their fruit is collected.


    They are also taking a lot of the fallen rocks with them as well, so it is good that I avoided claiming any more of the rock-fall and just went around it..


    I kind of wonder where they come from and what else might be nearby.


    <twinge>


    The Scout upgrade can be applied to any defender or spawner and will encourage the affected defenders to spend their active cycle exploring the closest unexplored area outside of the dungeon. While this will never be as good as the map of a dungeons claimed area, it can still provide information about the nearby environment and what sorts of invaders are likely to be encountered.


    The starer bat is often a favorite for scouting as it can travel much greater distances in a night than most defenders can cover, but it is also limited in that bats are generally active at night, and so day-time creatures and activities will generally be missed.


    Ground-based scouts can be effective, but are also more likely to lead invaders back to your dungeon. The starter rat can be used to bait nearby predators into your dungeon, but the hare defender is generally superior at this task due to its fast and evasive nature.


    Tool-use capable scouts are a good way to lure humanoid invaders, as they are prone to investigate any new tool users in their domain.


    <twinge>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 23</td>


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    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 99.9729%" border="1">


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    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">######______________##mm


    #...##______________#mmm.


    #...#################mmm..


    #...#................mmm...


    ##S##.T.T.T.T.T.T._._mmm....


    #...#..T.T.T.T.T._._.........


    #.T.#.T.T.T.T...T._._mmm......


    #...#..T.#.T.o#.._.#..mmm.....


    ##S##.T.T.T.T...T._...mmm....


    #...#..T.T.T.T.T.T._.........


    #.T.S.T.T.T.T.T.T._...mmm...


    #...#.................mmm..


    ######################mmmm.


    _____________________##mm</td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">###########


    #.........#


    #.t.t.t.T.#


    #..t.t.T..#


    #.t.t.T.T.###########################


    #..to#.T..-------------------------n#


    #.t.t._.T.###########################


    #.._._.T..#


    #._._._.T.#


    #.........#


    ###########</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 23, Mana: 91/165, Size: 330, next upgrade available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I guess that explains why sending out my orcs and goblins brought in those human invaders.


    Scouts seem like a good upgrade to go for first, but I should probably look to get access to bats afterwards.


    After the core upgrade, I think I can manage two more trees, a nest and a normal rat spawn. Probably near the rubble off to the side. Good thing I have so many trees down in my new core room, or I would be even more slowed down by all the harvesting going on. At least that wide-open entrance seems to be bringing in two distinct mana flows.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Feature: Scouts</td>


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    </table>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


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    </table>


    Back to take away my fruit again.


    This time one of them starts inching closer to the secondary core, so I let a few pebbles loose from the edges of the rockfall trap when they start to get close, and they quickly skitter away to the angry yells of the other fruit collectors.


    I do not think they even noticed my new rat nest.


    <twinge>


    Intruders include all animate entities that enter a dungeon that did not originate in that dungeon. While this can include defenders sent from other dungeons or monsters spawned from disrupted mana flows, those are unlikely to be near any other dungeons and tend to avoid them if they travel far enough to find one.


    Practically speaking, this means that invaders will generally be natural born entities. While wild animals will sometimes try to claim part or all of a dungeon as a nest or lair, this is uncommon. Generally the primary invaders will be tool-users seeking to gain training or resources from the dungeon.


    While these intruders can bring in mana from distant areas to be mixed in with the local mana, this is not a process that requires the participation of a dungeon, and can be considered incidental to the main task of a dungeon.


    The primary benefit of allowing intruders to train in a dungeon is that many intruders have abilities that are prone to disrupt normal mana flows, some even corrupting the mana itself, so encouraging the practice of those abilities to be primarily within a dungeon¡¯s area of mana control minimizes the negative impacts of those skills on normal mana.


    <twinge>

 Meeting the neighbors

    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 24</td>


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    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60.0162%" border="1">


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    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.9915%">#####_______________##mm


    #...#_______________#mmmn


    #...#################mmm..


    #...#................mmm...


    ##S##.T.T.T.T.T.T.t.tmmm....


    #...#..T.T.T.T.T.t.t.........


    #.T.#.T.T.T.T...T.t.tmmm......


    #...#..T.#.T.o#..t.#..mmm.....


    ##S##.T.T.T.T...T.t._.mmm....


    #...#..T.T.T.T.T.T.t._.......


    #.T.S.T.T.T.T.T.T.t...mmm...


    #...#.................mmm..


    ######################mmmm.


    _____________________##mm</td>


    <td style="width: 49.9915%">###########


    #.........#


    #.T.T.T.T.#


    #..T.T.T..#


    #.T.T.T.T.###########################


    #..To#.T..-------------------------n#


    #.T.T.t.T.###########################


    #..t.t.T..#


    #.t.t.t.T.#


    #.........#


    ###########</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 24, Mana: 126/165, Size: 330, core 17, next upgrade progress: 8%</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That is not quite right. I was expecting 118 mana, where are the other 8 mana coming from?


    Might the trees be getting more efficient at growing the fruit with practice? That does not make a lot of sense because if the 36 trees getting harvested every day were getting more efficient shouldn¡¯t it be 9 or 18 mana instead of 8?


    It is something to keep an eye on, but hardly unwelcome.


    To start with, I think a second normal rat spawner and making both spawners spawn scouts.


    I think the rat from yesterday is still asleep, but hopefully the scout behavior will apply to it as well, at least once it gets up.


    After that, I guess spread out a bit and plant say another twenty trees?


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


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    </table>


    They seem very excited about all the new plantings today, and all the rats seem to be out scouting, as I do not see any in the nest.


    They seem to be getting more efficient in harvesting the fruit, or at least they are bringing fewer guards.


    The mana-garden approach, especially if you have stuff on the surface, is highly effective, just as described. I hope I can keep this up for at least a few more upgrades, as I am almost to the base starting level.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 80%" border="1">


    <tbody>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    Scouting Report


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    There is a wood and plaster structure built atop the hill with the main entrance. This structure is guarded by a feline with roughly twice the mass of the rat scout.


    The unclaimed area in front of the main entrance extends out for another hundred to one hundred fifty spaces with the same grooved texture and sheared-off grasses as the already claimed area. The lingering scent of dung suggests a large group of passing animals may have caused this repeating regular pattern. At the far end of the pattern there is a wooden barrier that is difficult for the rats to pass through, but the other side has the smell of animals.


    The area above the dungeon is mostly covered with a dense pattern of different types of fruiting plants, mostly dry and dead, possibly due to the cold and ice that seems pervasive outside the dungeon. This grouping of dead fruiting plants is adjacent to the structure at the top of the hill, and is likely associated with it.


    To the sides of the entrance, there is a slope with a wooden barrier at the bottom of it. It is possible that some of the wood among the rocks near the entrance were a continuation of that barrier, but it was not sufficiently intact to prevent scouting both sides.


    It would seem that the double wooden barrier with the space between them is adequate for keeping the animals away from the structure, as there was very little scent of dung or animals on the side of the barriers with the structure.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of three rats.


    All scouts returned, one with minor injuries from the feline.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <twinge>


    Mana grass is the most basic mana plant and the prerequisite for any other magic plants or herbs.


    By itself, mana grass can improve the mana generation of a dungeon by a small, static amount, until it gets harvested by an invader.


    The more advanced mana tree provides a base mana income on top of providing a harvestable resource. While many invaders will be satisfied with harvesting the fruit, some few are both prepared and willing to harvest the tree itself, which then needs to be replaced, just like the grass.


    Unlocking Mana Grass also grants access to elemental herbs appropriate to each of the alternate environments that have been unlocked. Unlocking additional alternate environments will also unlock the appropriate herbs if mana grass is already unlocked.


    Elemental herbs generally come in two flavors, one that produces elemental mana by consuming one or more different flavors of mana, and one that consumes one or more flavors of mana to produce an elemental effect.


    For example, Steem-root consumes fire and water mana to produce an area of hot, humid air, while flame buds and water buds produce fire or water mana from neutral mana.


    If an herb is unable to access appropriate types of mana, then they will wither and eventually die if they are not already in an appropriately aspected region.


    When planted in the dark, these plants will draw a small amount of mana to provide their own light. While basic mana grass and mana trees can provide their own mana, elemental herbs will need a separate source of appropriate mana, reducing the potential mana generation of the dungeon. For this reason, it is common for mana grass to be found in proximity to elemental herbs.


    Aspected mana trees are just a larger, more mana-intensive version of elemental herbs that also produce a fruit that can be harvested without taking the entire plant. These can be worthwhile if you have a complex cycle of herbs and do not wish to lose an entire crop every time invaders harvest all of a specific flavor of herb without your notice.


    <twinge>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 25</td>


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    <td style="width: 49.12%">


    #####_______________##mm..


    #...#_______________#mmmn...


    #...#################mmm.....


    #...#................mmm........


    ##S##.T.T.T.T.T.T.T.Tm_m_._.....


    #...#..T.T.T.T.T.T.T._._._._......


    #.T.#.T.T.T.T...T.T.Tm_m_._.......


    #...#..T.#.T.o#..T.#._mmm_.........


    ##S##.T.T.T.T...T.T.t._m_._......


    #...#..T.T.T.T.T.T.T.t._._._.....


    #.T.S.T.T.T.T.T.T.T._._m_._......


    #...#.................mmm.......


    ######################mmmm....


    _____________________##mm....


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">


    ###########


    #.........#


    #.T.T.T.T.#


    #..T.T.T..#


    #.T.T.T.T.###########################


    #..To#.T..-------------------------n#


    #.T.T.T.T.###########################


    #..T.T.T..#


    #.T.T.T.T.#


    #.........#


    ###########


    </td>


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    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


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    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 24, Mana: 136/195, Size: 390, next upgrade progress: 87%</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Ok, so mana plants are more productive when exposed to light. That would explain the unexpected mana I have been getting.


    Also, that scouting report is very useful, I should have plenty of area to expand into for several more core upgrades, so long as I move forward from the entrance and avoid that structure with the feline defender.


    That structure might also be one of those upgraded camps that can spawn tool users, a likely source of the fruit harvesters even.


    I wonder if they are worried about losing the structure on the hill, or just the trees if that rock fall trap falls on the core, but it seems like plenty to encourage the gatherers to stick with the trees and leave the core alone.


    If I expand out into that clear area, I should have plenty to get the bat upgrade and hopefully, add a bat nest or two to send out flying scouts. If I can find more structures, I might be able to move my core under one of those and give them another good reason to leave it alone.


    [Floor Designated, New Defender: Noctule Bat]


    Ok, now a nest in the corner there and a bat spawn costs six, seven if I make it a scout. I think I am going to invest a lot into this, a second nest on the other side of the entrance and two bat scout spawns in each nest. I still have one more mana, so how about I start digging towards that structure on the hill from my old core room. If I put it towards the back, I should be able to get another tree room under that building with another secondary core. If those core killers come back, perhaps they will be more reluctant to destroy me if doing so will destroy one of their own nests as well.


    [Intruder Detected]


    It is hard to believe that intruders coming in and harvesting most of my fruit is getting boring, but they are efficient and effective, clearly they have grown accustomed to stealing my fruit every day.


    With more trees exposed to the light, it is easier to see the differents, the exposed trees do not have the shimmer except on the fruit, so that may be an indication that they are using some mana to provide the light that they want.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 99.9729%" border="1">


    <tbody>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    Past the wooden barrier on the other side of the open area where I intend to continue expanding, there is an area with mostly grass and small bushes. No obvious signs of the large number of animals that were scented previously, but there seem to be plenty of piles of fresh dung suggesting that the lack of animals is recent.


    To the sides of the entrance, there are more fenced areas, generally a few hundred areas across in each direction. Some of the fences are wood, and others are piled stones. At least one of the stone fences is lacking the dead grasses that indicates it has been there for a while, suggesting a possible destination for the stones that have been collected from when I collapsed the side of the hill.


    On the side of the hill facing away from my entrance, there are a cluster of additional structures, mostly made with wood, paster, and some stone. Of particular interest, there is a stone-lined hole with a roof over it that sounds to be quite deep.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of four rats and four bats.


    All scouts returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <twinge>


    Alternate environments refer to the various elemental affinities available to a dungeon.


    As the dungeon core is a crystal, and dungeons are generally on or under the ground, the starting environment of most dungeons could be considered to be earth. Alternate environments can also allow fire and water affinities, as well as more complex affinities such as ice, poison or lava. While an air affinity region might be possible, it is generally not practical, but related complex affinities such as miasma may be viable.


    In addition to gaining access to the environmental hazards of an alternate environment, any defenders created or spawned in such an environment will have both an attack and enhanced resistances related to that environment.


    Changing environments once invaders are already deep within the dungeon can be an effective way of slowing down or turning back groups of invaders. Even prepared invaders will often need to spend time and resources preparing for a switch of environments.


    As an added caution, it is not wise to have a strong, elementally enhanced defender close to an opposing environment, lest invaders use your environments against your own defenders.


    <twinge>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 26</td>


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    <td style="width: 49.12%">


    _###


    ##.##_______________##mm..


    #...#_______________#mmmn...


    #...#################mmm.....


    #...#............n...mmm........


    ##S##.T.T.T.T.T.T.T.Tmtmt.t......


    #...#..T.T.T.T.T.T.T.t.t.t.t.......


    #.T.#.T.T.T.T...T.T.Tmtmt.t........


    #...#..T.#.T.o#..T.#.tmmmt..........


    ##S##.T.T.T.T...T.T.T.tmt.t.........


    #...#..T.T.T.T.T.T.T.T.t.t.t......


    #.T.S.T.T.T.T.T.T.T.t.tmt.t.......


    #...#.............n...mmm........


    ######################mmmm....


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere._____________________##mm....


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">


    ###########


    #.........#


    #.T.T.T.T.#


    #..T.T.T..#


    #.T.T.T.T.###########################


    #..To#.T..-------------------------n#


    #.T.T.T.T.###########################


    #..T.T.T..#


    #.T.T.T.T.#


    #.........#


    ###########


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    status Day 26, Mana: 182/200, Size: 401, core 18, next upgrade progress: 1% 1/84


    </td>


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    </table>


    I wonder what that hole is for? Perhaps I could imitate that structure the next time I want an entrance?


    The rope instead of any sort of stairs should make things more difficult at the very least, especially if I do not include the rope in my version. Assuming I could make a rope if I try.


    So, hiding under the invader nest.


    Hmm, there already seems to be an open area under the nest. I had better hide this new entrance with a secret passage and send some rats in to scout it.


    So Stairs down a couple levels, to give me a place to put the falling rocks, then build a nine-by-nine with a central support and adjacent trapped secondary core. Oh, nice, that gives me enough for my next upgrade, but I do not have nearly the mana for it.


    So a couple secret passages to hide the new construction from both ends, start filling in trees and spend the last point on claiming more open area.


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


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    </table>


    The invader-harvesters are back. I think I will have one of the rats re-check the dried plants room to see how much more they have after another day''s worth of harvest.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 99.9729%" border="1">


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    In the early evening there were several metal-armored invaders standing around yelling at other invaders who were making some sort of fabric structures held up with sticks and rope.


    Some of the pitch-fork invaders seemed to be trying to talk to them, but they were rather far away, and the armored invaders did not seem to hear them, even if the pitchfork invaders were calling out loudly.


    There was also a larger animal that carried off one of the fruit-stealing invaders. There was no obvious bleeding or dismemberment, and the invader was on its back instead of in its mouth, so that may have been a cooperative effort instead of an invader being eaten by a wild animal.


    The underground portion of the wooden structure seems mostly to contain a honey-comb of wooden ledges holding various plant parts. Nearly a quarter of the ledges are holding the fruit harvested from my dungeon, along with multiple lidless chests also holding my fruits.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of four rats and eight bats.


    All scouts returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <twinge>


    Bats are commonly nocturnal cave-dwelling creatures. As defenders they can be effective distractions and may cause invaders to fall for traps they might otherwise notice, but tend not to be effective combatants on their own.


    Bats can be effective scouts or spies, especially in low-light environments.


    Bats spawned from an alternative environment will usually have an elemental effect that they can apply to invaders, but the effectiveness of those effects can vary greatly.


    <twinge>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 27</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">


    ###########


    #.........#


    #._._._._.#


    #.._._._..#


    #._..o....#


    #....#....#


    #.........#


    #.........#


    #.........#


    #.........#


    #####S#####


    ____#^#


    ____###


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">


    ###


    #v#


    #^#


    ###


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">


    _...


    ##S##


    _#V#


    _#.#


    _#.#


    _#.#


    ##S##_______________##mm..


    #...#_______________#mmmn...


    #...#################mmm.....


    #...#............n...mmm........


    ##S##.T.T.T.T.T.T.T.TmTmT.T......


    #...#..T.T.T.T.T.T.T.T.T.T.T.......


    #.T.#.T.T.T.T...T.T.TmTmT.T........


    #...#..T.#.T.o#..T.#.TmmmT..........


    ##S##.T.T.T.T...T.T.T.TmT.T.........


    #...#..T.T.T.T.T.T.T.T.T.T.T......


    #.T.S.T.T.T.T.T.T.T.T.TmT.T.......


    #...#.............n...mmm........


    ######################mmmm....


    _____________________##mm....


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">


    ###########


    #.........#


    #.T.T.T.T.#


    #..T.T.T..#


    #.T.T.T.T.###########################


    #..To#.T..-------------------------n#


    #.T.T.T.T.###########################


    #..T.T.T..#


    #.T.T.T.T.#


    #.........#


    ###########


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 27, Mana: 182/247, Size: 494, next upgrade available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I am very concerned that these armored invaders might be the core-killers preparing to destroy my dungeon again, but bats are very bad at identifying distinctive markings like the white tabards with the lightning-core on it. Clearly I am going to want some sharp-sighted birds to use as scouts for today''s upgrade.


    The underground area for holding my fruits confused me at first, but considering I have multiple separated underground areas for hiding things from invaders, it makes sense for them to hide away some of my fruit in case the dungeon killers show up and smash all my trees. The fact that it also holds dried parts of other plants suggests that it might also be a gathering place for that sort of thing.


    This holding area does not even have as many of my fruit as were harvested today, so I wonder how many of these holding areas the invaders have? Do they have one under each of the structures my bats identified? Is that why those new structures are cloth, so they can dig out the storage area and then build on top of it without worrying about a potential collapse?


    I wonder if some of these plant parts need the other plant parts, sort of like how it is advisable to have mana grass around to feed elemental herbs. It feels like that might work better if the plants are not already harvested and dried out, but clearly these invaders have been dealing with plants longer than I have, so it may be worth investigating.


    So, I want something common and inconspicuous that can fly around and get a good look at things in the light.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Defender: Dove</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That sounds like something that might reasonably make a nest in the area created by the collapse when I got exposed.


    And if I want to trick the core killers into thinking they killed me when I set off that first secondary core, I will need to practice leaving rocks and loose dirt on my territory. That feels wrong, but hiding is better than dying, so I am going to try anyway.


    It takes a few tries, but I am finally able to claim some areas along the broken hill-face and leave the rocks and dirt as they were before I claimed the area, then place a nest on either side of the entrance with a couple dove scout spawns in each, similar to the bats. Looks like the doves are a fair bit larger than the bats, but some of that might be the feathers. Those beaks might be long enough to cause some minor damage, but not sharp enough to be useful for doing so. Outside of a scouting role, I do not think doves will be very effective at providing defense, as their claws do not even look sufficient for tearing cloth.


    That leaves me with enough for another eight trees in the sub-structure, doubling the number in that room, and bringing my potential daily mana above two hundred.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    It is still dark out when the first two invaders arrive. They have metal helmets, and mail shirts, but not the plate of the core killers or the tent people, and their tabards have a darker shade and a different pattern on them than the core killers. They also do not seem to be doing much, just standing there with their polearms on either side of my entrance. Did the invader-harvesters give me invader-defenders? I am not sure how I feel about that, as I have no control over them, and if they kill anyone, the invaders may want to destroy my core again.


    The daily invader-harvesters arrive with the first light and load their carts with my fruit. I am relieved, but not surprised that the invader-defenders seem to be friendly with the harvesters.


    While they work, I get my first look at the plat armored fabric structure invaders, and they have the symbol of the core killers on their chests.


    The invader-defenders are wary of the core killers and force them to open the chest they are carrying. I prepare to trigger the collapse of the exposed tre room, but this time the chest they carry does not have the cursed hammer, instead it has a large hollow-looking device that seems to be filled with spiky bits, mostly pointing inwards.


    After the harvesters finish, the defenders yell at the core killers some more and most of them back away, leaving only four unarmed core killers and a staff-holding core killer to carry the device inside my dungeon.


    The staff-core-killer does a lot of yelling at the other invaders when they finally get to where they can see my secondary core. There is a fair bit of yelling, but the defenders yell and point their weapons, so the unarmored core killers lift the device and bring it towards the core as the staff-holder backs up a bit giving them plenty of room.


    It is only when they lift the device higher and start moving it over the core that I realize that the device is designed to press all those pointy-bits against a dungeon core, and as they approach, I can feel some very nasty mana on those points. Now that I have a good idea what they are attempting, I trigger the trap, detonate the core and collapse most of the tree room.


    There is a lot of yelling, and it looks like the device got destroyed, along with those carrying it, but the staff-holder managed to protect themselves from the falling dirt and stone. Unfortunately, many of the trees were destroyed, but the invader-defenders seem to be feeling very stabby towards the core-killers and force them to leave the area.


    Later in the day, the invader defenders get switched out for others that I would have thought were the same, had I not watched the switch happen.


    After watching the invader-defenders do very little for most of the day, I can more fully appreciate the way time usually passes for me after using my daily mana.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 80%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report: Day</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The lidless chests holding my fruit are now gone from the plant storage area, but there is still quite a bit on the wooden ledges.


    The fabric structures are primarily occupied by core-killers and they have multiple large pieces of fabric displaying their symbol.


    Near midday, a new group of armored invaders arrived, accompanied by several wagons.


    While the wagons were loaded with lidless chests of dungeon fruit, the armored invaders, wearing the same design as the invader-defenders, approached the core-killers and had a discussion that frequently increased in volume.


    At one point, one of the less armored invaders brought a dungeon fruit to the invader yelling the loudest at the core killers, then, after waving it around vigorously for a while, the fruit was crushed in its hand and the resulting mess thrown at the core killers.


    Some time later, the yelling ended and the core-killers started pulling down their fabric structures under the watch of invaders matching the appearance of the invader-defenders in front of the dungeon entrance.


    Once the fabric structures and other items were stowed, the core-killers departed opposite the direction that the carts holding the dungeon fruit departed, although still using the same rutted-path that passes between the remaining structures.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of four rats and four doves.


    All scouts returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report: Night</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    Some dark-clad invaders came up the path from the direction the core killers departed, using small devices, they wandered the area, generally heading towards the hill-top structure and a separate area near the base of the hill opposite the dungeon entrance.


    There were several additional invaders similar to the invader-defenders around the area; the dark-clad invaders generally avoided them.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of eight bats.


    All scouts returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 28</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">


    ###########


    #.........#


    #.t.t.t.t.#


    #..t.t.t..#


    #.t._o_._.#


    #.._.#._..#


    #._._._...#


    #.........#


    #.........#


    #.........#


    #####S#####


    ____#^#


    ____###


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">


    ###


    #v#


    #^#


    ###


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">


    _...


    ##S##


    _#V#


    _#.#


    _#.#


    _#.#


    ##S##_______________##mm..


    #...#_______________#nmmn...


    #...#################mmm.....


    #...#............n...mmm........


    ##S##.T.T.T.T.T.T.T.TmTmT.T......


    #...#..mmmmmmmmmmmmmmT.T.T.T.......


    #.T.#.TmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmTmT.T.........


    #...#..mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmT...........


    ##S##.TmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmTmT.T.........


    #...#..mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.T.T.T.......


    #.T.S.T.T.T.T.T.T.T.T.TmT.T.......


    #...#.............n...mmm........


    ######################mmmm....


    _____________________##nm....


    ______________________##m


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">


    ###########


    #.........#


    #.T.T.T.T.#


    #..T.T.T..#


    #.T.T.T.T.###########################


    #..To#.T..-------------------------n#


    #.T.T.T.T.###########################


    #..T.T.T..#


    #.T.T.T.T.#


    #.........#


    ###########


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 28, Mana: 151/247, Size: 494, core 19, next upgrade progress: 11%</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Wait, no memory dump?


    Is it because those intruder-defenders were there all the time and I never had down-time for it to happen?


    Probably not a big deal. Probably would have told me that doves are common innocuous day-creatures that are useless for combat unless they have special abilities from their spawn environment. Too bad it does not seem to have much on the core killers, that might prove useful.


    The dark figures might be the core-killers coming back and looking for me. The back of the hill is probably where my main core is, and the secondary core is under the hill-top structure. I wonder if they are tracking my mana gathering fields.


    If I could dig straight down twenty times, I could probably get my core out of range, but I would also need to dig to the side far enough that they would not find me by just digging where their scouts said to dig. On top of that I am only about thirty mana above the cost of the previous upgrade, so while the upgrade might be possible, I still need a lot more than sixty spaces to be eligible for the upgrade.


    On the other hand, I do not know how fast they can dig, or if they can even reach a core that is completely sealed off, so for today, I¡¯ll dig down and over, perhaps thirty spaces each, in groups of ten and changing directions each time I dig over just to confuse things. Put in a sub-core, then close off multiple spaces on each side of those turns.


    Claim a bunch of surface area, and save the last half-dozen mana towards the upgrade tomorrow.


    Ok, I should be all ready to move my core as soon as I have the mana.


    Wait, where are my invader-defenders?


    Uh-oh, those dark-clad invaders are inside my dungeon and past the first two secret passages, searching the walls for the path to my core. Thank goodness I cut it off completely, but that is not going to save the secondary core under the hill.


    Huh, looks like they are more interested in the secret door behind the stairs than the stairs themselves. I wonder if they have a special interest in the dried plants in that storage area.


    Apparently not too much interest, as they came back to my claimed area pretty quick after leaving it.


    They found my sub-core, so I¡¯ll need to be ready to trigger the rocks if they get too close or pull out one of those devices.


    Well, they did pull out a device, but it is a small one, and they are talking to it.


    Pulling out another devices¡­ and it is just a tiny crossbow. Loading it and pointing it at my core. I don¡¯t know if it is a cursed bolt, but I guess they do not want to be crushed by the falling rocks like the core killers with that spiky device were.


    I wonder what they are waiting for?


    As far as I can tell, there is not anything else¡­


    Wait, what is happening with the ceiling in my core room? Is that a hole?


    Yes, that is a hole, and another dark-clad core-killer is now in my core room.


    I really do not like this!


    Ok, be reasonable, I am ready to detonate all of my cores at a moment¡¯s notice, so I can watch them long enough to be better prepared next time. I might even catch some of them in the collapse, reducing the number available to hunt down my next dungeon.


    Yes, that¡¯s it, just wait until I can take out as many of them as I can so they will be less able to threaten my next dungeon.


    They lowered down a chest. Not yet, not yet, what is in the chest?


    Hammer Chest! Drop the Rocks! Drop the Rocks!!!

 Fourth time is the charm?

    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr style="text-align: left">


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Restoration complete</td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: left">


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr style="text-align: left">


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">


    status Day 1, Mana: 1/1*, Size: 1, core 19, upgrade progress: 7%


    Defenders: Rat, Giant Rat, Bat, Dove


    Traps: Sleep gas, Core Trap, Trap Core, Falling Rocks


    Features: Rebirth, Nest, Prison, Mana Grass, Mana Tree, Secret passages, Alternate Entrances, Doors, Scouts


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Ok, ok, calm down. Looks like I got away from the hammer with no lasting damage.


    Successful proof of concept!


    Yes, I had a big, successful dungeon producing hundreds of mana a day, but I can do that again.


    So, what have I learned to help me be better prepared next time?


    <ul>


    <li style="font-weight: 400">Core killers can detect a core through the ground, possibly due to the mana field, so to be hidden, my main core needs to be deep underground.</li>


    <li style="font-weight: 400">Invader-harvesters can make things harder for the core-killers, if the dungeon has been discovered anyway.</li>


    <li style="font-weight: 400">Invader-time in the dungeon produces mana, but not nearly as much as trees and grass can.</li>


    <li style="font-weight: 400">Core-killers seem willing to enslave a mana garden if it seems harmless. This is not an improvement.</li>


    <li style="font-weight: 400">Not killing anyone let me grow much larger before the core-killers found me, even though others found me first.</li>


    <ul>


    <li style="font-weight: 400">Is it possible that they can find a dungeon more easily once it gets big enough? Makes sense. What if it is cut into parts?</li>


    </ul>


    <li style="font-weight: 400">Multiple openings, or an extra large opening can give bonus daily mana.</li>


    <li style="font-weight: 400">Dig down before you dig out if you do not want to expose yourself</li>


    <li style="font-weight: 400">Scouting the local environment can help put obstacles in front of the core killers.</li>


    <li style="font-weight: 400">Four-by-four is the biggest you can make a room without support pillars</li>


    <li style="font-weight: 400">Nine-by-nine make a nice core room where you can bring the roof down on the heads of any attacker</li>


    </ul>


    That¡­ seems like a lot.


    How about: do not get found, hide deep, be ready to run.


    That seems a lot easier to remember.


    To start, a narrow chimney next to the core, then dig down two levels and then dig out a core room below that, with the chimney off to the corner. If I do not finish the room, that should be enough for an upgrade to start tomorrow with twenty mana.


    Which upgrade though? The scouting reports indicated ice as a normal environmental factor, and while matching the outside might be less conspicuous, it seems unlikely to be much of a hindrance if they are already prepared for it before even finding an entrance.


    The core killers had fires, and the harvesters had some burning torches on occasion, along with smoke coming from their spawning structures. So if they are already prepared for ice and fire, water seems like a safe bet. At the very least it would put out torches which they seem to find important.


    Not sure how I could do so yet, but I think I want to be able to put a strong water barrier between any entrances and anything of importance.


    [Upgrade Complete, New Environment: Water]


    <twinge>


    Doves are common birds found in most parts of the world. As defenders they can be effective distractions and may cause invaders to fall for traps they might otherwise notice, but tend not to be effective combatants on their own.


    Doves can be effective scouts or spies, especially in settled areas.


    Doves spawned from an alternative environment will usually have an elemental effect that they can apply to invaders, but the effectiveness of those effects can vary greatly.


    <twinge>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 2</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 2, Mana: 9/9*, Size: 19, core 20, next upgrades progress: 27%]</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Ah, yes, those are back, and as I suspected, Doves are basically a day-version of bats.


    Now I have plenty of mana to get the next upgrade, but what would be beneficial? Once I have an opening, I may want to get as many upgrades as I can to carry them forward, but I should be safe for at least a bit, and the only things that come to mind are the environments, which I do not even know how to use yet.


    I think for today, I¡¯ll just work on the sub-core room I started yesterday, and get my max mana close to my daily generation.


    <twinge>


    The water environment provides a special challenge for underground dungeons, as water is dense enough and flows readily enough that it can overflow or fall out of designated areas and fill areas below.


    This means that special care is needed to ensure any floor below a water area can either resist flooding, such as an ice area, or the water cannot reach it due to a moon-pool like structure.


    Water areas can generally have two depths, either full or half-full. Any water area that is below another connected water area that is either higher up or deeper will generally increase its level to that of the deeper area. This can be countered with a door, so long as the higher water area is only connected by a tunnel that is lower than the desired water surface. An empty door-frame can also serve this purpose if the door type is sturdy enough to handle the additional water depth it is preventing.


    Note: if a water level is adjacent to a fire level, invaders will often spend a great deal of effort to transport the water into the fire area to neutralize both.


    So long as significant amounts of water are not removed from a water area, there is generally little or no maintenance cost for that area.


    <twinge>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 3</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%"></td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 3, Mana: 19/19*, Size: 39, core 20, next upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That sounds like I could make a U-shaped area of water and force invaders to pass through it to access my dungeon, while I would still have access to send scouts outside.


    If I made the U extra deep, any invaders wearing that heavy metal armor would have a particularly hard time getting out of it, as they would keep sinking to the bottom, while my minions and any mana flows would pass through with ease.


    In fact if I made a H-shaped water area they might sink right past the entrance. Especially if it was a secret passage that was under water. They would probably need to leave most of their metal behind just to find the passage without constantly sinking past it. Perhaps I could add another secret passage to make the H seem like an h and they could waste even more time searching for the second passage down at the bottom parts.


    I think I will use the chimney I have already started as a part of the top of the H, and plant grass down at the bottom ends to encourage spending time down there where they are not getting anywhere.


    First I should finish up this core-room and plant some trees so I have plenty of mana income for a larger project like that. And come to think of it, if I am planning to avoid harvesters, there is little reason not to plant grass between the trees to make the core-rooms more effective mana producers.


    <twinge>


    A prison is a holding area for invaders that have been incapacitated but not killed.


    Incapacitating prisoners can be achieved in multiple ways, such as non-damaging traps or defenders with non-lethal weapons.


    Holding invaders can have multiple advantages, such as mana production or luring in additional invaders in rescue attempts.


    While a cell can be secured with any option that can be used to secure doors, they also have the option of opening whenever any creature outside the cell touches the door and wills it open. This is the only option that allows the cell doors to be used by defenders that are not tool users and is the default option.


    Note: While putting a prison near the core may seem like a good utilization of defensive resources, if a rescue party is successful in reaching the core without significant additional effort, they have been known to smash the core as a form of retribution for holding the prisoner.


    <twinge>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 4</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 4, Mana: 21/24, Size: 49, core 20, Two upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Yep, saw that happen. I wonder how many dungeons learned that lesson the hard way and lived to try again?


    Probably a few if counterparts can reconstruct a core.


    The first core room/mana generation room always take so much time to build compared to how much mana is available after it is done.


    Interesting that my status shows how upgrades I currently have available, that seems handy to know.


    Although I do have a nagging feeling I may be forgetting something.


    <twinge>


    Spy is an add-on to the scout upgrade. The spy add-on allows the dungeon counterpart to direct individual scouts and directly access their senses. This allows the counterpart to compile detailed maps and reports from simple scouts like bats and rats that are more likely to be seen as innocuous.


    This upgrade is generally less useful on tool-using scouts as they can usually provide most of these additional details when reporting to the counterpart.


    <twinge>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 5</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 5, Mana: 24/30, Size: 60, core 20, Two upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Clearly not an upgrade that is useful to a core without a counterpart then. Bummer, better mapping and more detailed information would be nice.


    The core room is progressing nicely, but something still feels off.


    Did I position the core wrong? Perhaps, but that is not really it.


    Oh, right, the trap and rock-fall. Very important to have before I get discovered again.


    That slowed down the core room a little, but not too bad


    <twinge>


    In spite of being a water-air mix, Ice is often considered to be the opposite of fire. A more correct opposite would be acid, as ice is the water-air advanced element which would oppose the fire-earth makeup of acid.


    While technically a more advanced environment, the ice environment costs the same as a basic environment due to its prevalence in nature. Winter snows, snow-capped mountains, and the frozen north/south make ice a common enough element that mana will easily take its flavor.


    This feature is shared with its air-water counterpart of mist.


    Functionally, Ice and fire are strongly opposed to each other, and it can be difficult to transition between them without intermediate areas.


    This is also true for invaders, as many of the equipment and abilities that protect against one of them will make the invader more vulnerable to the other. An example would be thick fur keeping an invader warm against the chill of the ice but making them over-heat in a fire environment.


    While an abrupt hot-cold switch may stop more simple invaders, tool using invaders will often bring preparations for both, reducing the overall utility of such a change with regards to stopping them.


    While ice and water environments are highly compatible, most invaders that can tolerate one will have difficulty with the other, especially if such a transition is subtle or unexpected. Both swimming through slowly chilling water, and crossing slowly thinning ice over cold water can quickly prove deadly to the unprepared invader. Even prepared invaders can get into trouble if their boat gets damaged by submerged shards of ice.


    While a rapid change in temperature(such as a fire-ice transition) will require significant up-keep to maintain the sharp temperature gradient, more gradual changes, like a watery corridor filled with chunks of ice, will usually require little, if any, upkeep.


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    <twinge>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 6</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 6, Mana: 28/35, Size: 70, core 20, Three upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Huh, so environment changes can make things hard on invaders, not just the environments themselves? That seems like it might be useful.


    Almost done with the room structure, might as well finish that and worry about catching up on mana generation while I make my big water H.


    Perhaps I can make the bottoms of the H into a slushy ice/water mix? That may make them harder to search for the secret doors.


    <twinge>


    Fire is the least common of the basic environment types.


    This is mostly due to the dynamic nature of fire. Even when fire covers large areas, it will generally only last a few hours or days before burning all available fuel and going out.


    Fortunately, dungeons do not have this issue as fire areas can easily consume mana as a fuel.


    This does cause most fire environments to have a higher on-going up-keep cost to maintain the heat and flames.


    <twinge>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 7</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 7, Mana: 33/43, Size: 87, core 20, Three upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    A couple trees to balance over-building yesterday, then we can start on the first leg of the water-H.


    As the bottom of the H only gets more effective the longer it is, this seems like a great opportunity to dig to the depth where I want to place my real core room, even if I will be back-filling some of it for security reasons.


    <twinge>


    Farming areas are used by invaders to produce reliable food sources.


    These can often be distinguished by regular rows of identical plants outside of a dungeon environment.


    As invaders do not have a dungeon to feed them mana for sustenance, they must consume food on a regular basis to replace this lack.


    When providing bare earth for farming in your dungeon, it is recommended to use areas with good sun exposure at least one hundred feet on each side, preferably in sections roughly two hundred feet on each side, as this seems to be the base unit farmable by one invader without any farming specific abilities.


    <twinge>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 8</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 8, Mana: 37/48, Size: 96, core 20, Three upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Why would I want to know about farming areas?


    Would that be what those corrugated rows of dead grasses were?


    Is that what they wanted my fruits for? To consume them as a replacement for mana? How would they even do that?


    My scouts and defenders are maintained by having my mana suffuse their entire being. Does that mean that invaders need to regularly cover themselves with things like my fruit to absorb it into their bodies?


    Sounds messy and unpleasant.


    Ok, let¡¯s think about something less disturbing, like building. Things are speeding up a little, but really, starting over is the most tedious part of losing a dungeon.


    Speaking of tedious, hey Ashaka, any chance we can hold-up on the updates until you have something actually relevant? I appreciate all the info-dumps and all, but perhaps hold off a bit so I can get past this tedious part a bit faster, or at least avoid disturbing things like invader maintenance?


    <twinge>


    Who is this? You are not a recognized dungeon counterpart.


    Please provide your counterpart ID and the ID code for the dungeon you are assisting.


    <twinge>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 9</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 9, Mana: 43/53, Size: 107, core 20, Four upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Ok, that may have been a mistake?


    Knowing that fire and advanced environments tend to have upkeep costs might be important for my future plans, I was just disturbed by that whole ¡®invaders doing messy things with my fruit¡¯ idea.


    Well, if it does not come back in a few days, I can always try to access anything they may have about the core-killers, and why they tried to kill me even when the invader-harvesters sent them away.


    I kind of suspected it was some sort of counterpart-like information access, since only the first few actually felt like memories, with the rest feeling more like raw information, and I doubted that my predecessor needed to bother with doves for scouting.


    On the plus side, I should be deep enough, so I just need to dig far enough to the side to keep my main core hidden, and I can start digging out the ¡®deep¡¯ core room.


    Hmm, it occurs to me that there are four main directions I could use to dig away from the chimney. One side has my original core space up near the surface, opposite that has my current core room, but if I one of the other sides, that gives me a little more space between my core and the rest of the dungeon, especially the other lower limb of the H, and gives the core killers a much wider area to search for my core.


    Probably five trees and the rest digging most of the shaft to displace my core.


    [Day 10]


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">¡®Shallow¡¯ core room</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    ¡®Deep'' core room


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%"> </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 10, Mana: 53/65, Size: 130, core 20, Four upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Might as well start with the last two trees for the shallow core room, then add the last dozen crawl-spaces to reach the deep core room, then open it up and see if I can afford to move my core today or not.


    That looks like a yes, but only if I leave the new sub-core for tomorrow.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Environment: Ice</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Huh, looks like the core trap illusion does not move with the core, a good thing to remember if I want to move a sub-core in the future. No matter, I¡¯ll just set everything up in the new core room and then dump the rest into some grass for the sub-core room.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 11</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    ¡®Shallow¡¯ core room


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    ¡®Deep¡¯ core room


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 11, Mana:59/76, Size: 153, core 21, Four upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Nice, my available upgrades did not even go down. Good to be building faster again.


    Although I need to spend a third of my mana for the sub-core, then The rest of it on digging out the core room and planting a few trees. <Sigh> and there it all went.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 12</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    ¡®Shallow¡¯ core room


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    ¡®Deep¡¯ core room


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    status Day 12, Mana:84/86, Size: 172, core 21, Four upgrades available


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Oh, pretty close to max mana today, guess I forgot the bump from the secondary core in my digging. On the plus side, I should have enough to finish digging out the new core room and fill in nearly a dozen spaces near the bottom of the deep shaft, making my deep core nearly impossible to find. I hope.


    Then I can start on my icy-water entrance and see what I need to deal with on the surface.


    It would be nice to stay buried deep underground, but I need a fair bit of open space to try out this whole idea of launching secondary cores off into the distance.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 13</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    ¡®Shallow¡¯ core room


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    ¡®Deep¡¯ core room


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 13, Mana:91/104, Size: 208, core 21, Five upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Finally, just a few points to square up the core room, some secret passages on the chimney and we are ready to dig out the rest of the H.


    Ok, so the water environment costs a mana per area, so filling up the H cost nearly forty mana.


    Fortunately, that leaves me with enough to make a nest with a scout dove spawn.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Already!?!


    Wait, I do not see anything.


    Is that a lizard drinking from my water?


    That lizard is small enough that a normal rat could bite it in half, that does not seem like much of a threat.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Is that another lizard? No, I think it is a snake, still too small to be a concern.


    It is not even light out yet, I need to see if I can reduce the sensitivity of the intruder alert. Perhaps ignore everything smaller than a bat? That should be pretty safe.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    At least it is starting to get light out now. I see a bunch of lizards, spiders, and other insects, so which one set off the alert? Ah, probably that particularly large scorpion, probably twice the size of a bat and nearly a third the size of a rat.


    Is this why the hole they had near those harvester-structures had the low wall around it, to keep away small creatures?


    If they all count as invaders will a tiny lizard give as much mana as a full sized human? That would be nice, but hardly seems likely.


    Hmm, the sun seems to be coming up pretty quick, and the intruders all but vanished with the sun. I wonder if they are ice-attuned or something and trying to stay cold.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That is a rather large bird, especially compared to all of the tiny critters that came by in the morning.


    Vulture, ok, I guess it is not as much of a threat to my dove as I thought. And it seems to have brought some friends.


    I am getting the impression that water is not very common around here. I hope that means that there are not a lot of tool users around either, as I am perfectly happy providing water to the locals if that is all they want.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    No structures detected


    Plants are sparse, and the ground is mostly sandy and dry.


    No large animals detected, but a hawk was encountered.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of one dove.


    All scouts returned. One dove was injured.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Ah, my drinking visitors returned at sunset.


    Lots of them. Gerbils, larks, shrews, even a fox.


    There seems to be some fighting for access to the water, so I may need to expand from a pool to a pond to encourage more visitors and potential invader-defenders.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 14</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Surface


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    ¡®Deep¡¯ core room


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">[status Day 14, Mana:105/122, Size: 244, core 21, Five upgrades available]</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Looks like I got a few points from visitors, so they clearly count, but not as much as something larger.


    I wonder if anything more interesting would show up if I enlarged the pool from something a giant rat can barely squeeze through to something room-sized?


    Perhaps four-by-five? That is a pretty big room, and that would be large enough to put my dove nest on its own island to keep it from being trampled.


    Perhaps with a ring of trees and grass around the pond so the visitors need not run off as soon as the sun shows itself?


    Actually, that hawk makes me a little nervous, how about another scout spawn and most of a ring of grass.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The vulture is back and it brought some friends.


    A close look at the grass shows plenty of smaller invaders hiding from the sun.


    And apparently some of them are being eaten by others, as the vultures seem to find several partially eaten tiny carcasses in the grass after their drink. I wonder if that will have any impact on my mana? I do not seem to have gotten a top-off, so not as much as killing a big invader with my defenders, at least not yet.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 99.9729%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    One scout sighted a green area off in the distance, but was lost before it could investigate.


    The local area is baked dirt and stone that rises slightly above an extended area of rippled sand, like giant waves of water frozen in place.


    Some movement was detected on the sand, but the source of that movement was not obvious. Presumably there are well camouflaged animals in addition to the wind-blown sand.


    The local rise is not enough to stop the sand, but it does cut down on the amount that gets blown into the dungeon


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of three doves.


    Two doves returned. One dove was lost.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 Taking a look around

    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 15</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Surface


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">


    Vertical


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%">


    ¡®Deep¡¯ core room


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%"> </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 15, Mana:129/149,  Size: 298, core 21, Six upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Hmm, looks like probably ten to twenty mana from intruders and dead intruders.  A lot better than the brief visits of yesterday.


    I wonder if that would improve with a second ring of trees and grass?  I should be able to afford that plus claiming another ring around that.


    That would give me a practice area for trying to throw around mana more than ten areas long.


    Hmm, might want that a bit bigger. If I add two more rings tomorrow, I should still have over a hundred mana for messing around and have a practice area fifteen by three consisting mostly of barren dirt.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    A small fox is prowling around the surface portion of my dungeon.  It seems to appreciate the growing trees as it rubs against several of them, often dislodging smaller invaders that it would try to hit with a bite-attack.  Fortunately this aggression seems unlikely to be directed towards the dungeon because the over-large ears would make traversing the chimney difficult due to catching the water as it tried to swim far enough down to search for the secret passages.


    This reminds me that I was considering putting ice down at the ends of the chimneys, and possibly some environmental mana grass as well.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The green in the distance is too far to get a good look, but the shape suggests it may be a small group of trees.  There is now a group of structures roughly halfway between the green smudge and the dungeon.  It was not present yesterday, and does not seem to be moving today.  The rippling of the structures suggest they may be made of cloth, but no known symbols were identified.


    In the direction opposite the green, there is a region on the horizon that is a darker brown than the sand, possibly another platform of raised earth similar to the one holding the dungeon.


    In the early morning, a larger predator was spotted in the sand, but was too far away to identify.  It is presumed to be a predator because there was movement and flicker of red as something rat sized was killed and then swallowed whole.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of four doves.


    Four doves returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 16</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%"></td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 16, Mana:170/185,  Size: 370, core 21, Seven upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I am concerned that whatever set up those structures may be traveling at night, and I do not yet have any bat scouts.  I expect I would need to make a new chimney to have a place to put the bat nest as thinking about putting scouts in either the alternate core room or the original core location gives me a feeling of futility.  Perhaps bats have difficulty with secret passages or flying through water.  It would be nice if one or both of those prove to be a significant hindrance to most of the non-tool users that have taken up residence around the entrance to my dungeon.


    Well, to start with, I wanted to expand my perimeter a bit, then a chimney just deep enough to host a bat nest with a couple scout spawns, so I can spot anything approaching at night.


    Now, let¡¯s start small, and just try to throw a couple mana towards one corner of my perimeter using that smoke-ring technique.


    Wham!


    Oh.  Good thing my central core was far enough away for that to hit the ceiling of the core chamber instead of setting off the falling rocks trap above the core.


    Instead let me try throwing a point or two at the wall of my secondary core chamber, this time focusing on throwing it from the secondary core.


    Pop!


    No, from the secondary core! Focus!


    Smack!


    Ok, good, now more like that ring-pattern


    Smack!


    This is a lot harder than it looked.  Good thing I still have more than a hundred mana to practice with.  Oh, speaking of mana, let me just put in those ice bits at the bottoms of those chimneys before I end up using it all for practice.


    Ok, I finally managed to get a couple points of mana to travel all the way to the wall before getting disrupted, so I think I am almost ready to start practicing in my larger practice area up on the surface.


    I¡¯ll either need a new core or to move my sub core for that, so I really want to make sure I am not going to have visitors.


    The bats should be returning soon, I¡¯ll wait on their report before exposing myself.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Oh, a bunch of tool-users covered in cloth, probably those same ones that had the cloth structures spotted yesterday by my scout.


    Yep, after a visit to my water they seem intent on setting up their structures in my practice area.


    It looks like not all of them are tool users, as the larger ones on four feet just seem to be carrying for the tool users, but at least the tool users seem to be taking care of them in return, brushing them and letting them play in my water.


    Hey! Why are the carriers trying to attack my fruit?


    Sure the tool users were happy to harvest them, but when some of them were set down near the carriers, they started viciously trying to kill the harvested fruit?!


    Seems strange, as you would expect them to use their legs for a kick attack, as they look much stronger than their jaws, they do not even have sharp teeth to make their attacks effective.


    Invaders are weird


    Ah, the sun is coming up, and the bats are returning to their nest to report.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 99.9729%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    This region exhibits a great deal of night activity, especially as the morning approaches.


    There are a large number of insects and small animals that come out primarily at night, and tend to go into hiding before the sun rises over the horizon.


    A caravan approached the dungeon in the early morning and started setting up camp.


    The largest predator would have little difficulty killing a giant rat, but seemed wary and changed directions when it scented the caravan.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of two bats.


    Two bats returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I guess the bats are a better scout for keeping an eye on the locals.  Lots of different types that mostly seem to avoid the light.  I wonder if adding lights to the dungeon would keep these types away, or if they are only concerned about really bright lights, as they seemed fine with the moonlight.


    Perhaps they will go away at sunset and I will have a chance to finish practicing once they are gone?


    If not I can always put more trees in my main core room.


    I want to keep an eye on this caravan anyway, just in case they try to do something with my dungeon.  If things look bad, I could even afford three more upgrades before I retreat.  Perhaps a defender and some more environments?


    Once they finish with their structures, the new arrivals spend a great deal of time with my water.  First filling barrels and taking their carriers into the water, then going into the water themselves, calling out to each other and some of the smaller ones even throwing water around at each other.


    Fortunately, they do not seem to be moving large amounts of water out of my pond, so I doubt it will cost me more than a point to replenish it all, one area of water is quite a bit more than they are taking.


    Looks like the structure invaders are taking all my fruit, at least the fruit on the surface.


    They all seem intent on making bite-attacks on my fruit, even cutting it into smaller pieces to account for not being able to make an effective bite against the skin of the fruit.


    Avoiding the light and biting things?  That reminds me of something.  Vampires?  Allergic to light and able to extract vitality using a bite attack?  A condition that can potentially be spread to others with a bite attack?


    Fortunately my fruit do not have any form of bite, so no worries about this condition spreading from my dungeon once these invaders are gone, but if they all have this condition, then traveling at night and sucking the vitality from my fruit with their bites does make a certain amount of sense.


    I am glad they do not try it on my trees.


    Come to think of it, it is probably a lot neater and cleaner than however non-vampires infuse themselves.  Oh, I think they have one of those with them, it is very small, perhaps too small to survive the bite that would turn it into a vampire, and that is why it seems to be half covered in some sort of mush, only partially made with my fruit.  There is one of the full-sized vampires that seems to be trying to train it to suck vitality with its mouth like the rest of them, but the little one seems much more accustomed to being covered in the mush for being infused.


    Once the sun is well up, the vampires have all retreated inside their structures and seem to be resting, which seems vaguely appropriate, except for a few holding spears who are wandering around poking at the carriers and looking for anything approaching their structures.  Sort of like the invader-defenders of my last dungeon, except they are covered in cloth instead of metal.


    Not much changes until the shadows start to switch to the other side and start growing again, but the vampire-defenders get very excited and start rousing all of the other vampires, pointing off into the distance.


    They all get very excited and start digging up dirt to pile on the sides of their structures.  Curious as to what they are doing, I let the dirt accumulate on the surface instead of cleaning it up, as they do not seem intent on going deep, just covering the outsides of their structures.


    They also move some structures to be right next to other structures and then put dirt on those as well.


    The smaller invaders in my dungeon also seem to be very anxious, as many of them try to hide underground or behind my plants.


    I start to get nervous once I realize that the vampires seem to be layering defenses against whatever is approaching, starting with my trees, then dirt, and finally fabric structures all huddled together, even moving their carriers to be behind and against their structures.


    It is not long after the vampires stop throwing dirt around and run into their structures that the wind picks up and starts making my trees dance with great vigor.  Then something starts to eat away at them, starting with their leaves.


    I cannot see any new invaders, and a close inspection seems to indicate that it is tiny shards of sand poking holes in the leaves and knocking off bits of bark.


    It does not take long before all my trees on the side away from the vampires are without any leaves, and much of the grass is also damaged or buried.  I started out cleaning up the sand as it landed, but that was getting my grass eaten away almost as fast as the leaves on the trees, so I followed the lead of the vampires, letting the sand build up to protect what was left of the grass.


    When the vampires start coming out of their structures, I realize that the sand is no longer eroding my trees and the darkness is now due to the time instead of the sand carried by the wind.


    When they start digging out their structures and packing them away, I clear out the sand and debris from my dungeon to take a look at the damage.


    It looks like most of the trees are completely bare of leaves and on the first couple rows on the side facing the wind, the bark and many of the branches have been stripped as well.


    They are still alive or else the clean-up would remove them as debris, but I do not expect much mana from them today.


    Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    Thinking of the cleanup, the vampires seem concerned by the stuff covering their structures going away.


    There is a vigorous discussion with much pointing at my trees and water before they hurry up to finish packing and depart.


    All in all they were probably some of my best invaders.  So long as they do not come back and try to kill me that is.


    Hopefully not, as so far the ones that take my fruit generally seem to be happy to have me around.


    Although they did seem more interested in my water, but hopefully that has a similar effect.


    I expect that this is the sort of thing a counterpart would help me to understand better.


    On the topic of things to help with, if this sort of damage is going to happen on a regular basis, perhaps I should finish putting all the trees in my deep core room to boost my protected mana production, then tomorrow I can create a new sub-core and resume practicing on the surface.


    Oh, there were enough of them that I got mana during the day, leaving me with over sixty mana.  I guess I can throw in some grass with the trees then.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report: Day</td>


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    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    In the late morning the wind began to increase until it started picking up sand and dust.  This happened at a rapid pace and the scouts were not able to return to base due to the wind.  The scouts did not survive.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of four doves.


    No scouts returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report: Night</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    Just after sunset a caravan left the vicinity of the dungeon.


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of four bats.


    Four bats returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 17</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    ¡®Deep¡¯ core room


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"> </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">[status Day 17, Mana:114/234,  Size: 469, Eight upgrades available]</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Yep, all my trees top-side losing their leaves took quite the bite out of my mana generation.


    I do not really have a good place for a new secondary core, so I guess I''ll be frugal and just move my existing one topside for experimenting with throwing around mana


    Hmm, but what if I damage it?  Not really keen on losing this whole section to an accident.


    I suppose I could spend a little to double the length of the practice area and put the traps just a couple levels down, should be able to do that and the new core for less than fifty mana, leaving me another fifty to practice throwing around mana constructs before I need to put the new core away for the day.  Then tomorrow I should have almost two hundred mana to perfect the technique.


    This ring technique is harder than I thought, only about twenty mana left, so better re-hide the new core, and perhaps spend any leftover mana on making its storage area nicer.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report: Day</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    A caravan camp was spotted some distance from the dungeon.


    The dust has only partially settled out of the air, limiting visibility and range.


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of two doves.


    Two doves returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report: Night</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    A caravan was identified moving away from the dungeon.


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of four bats.


    Four bats returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 18</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Storage


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"> </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 18, Mana:246/257,  Size: 515, Nine upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    While I am keen to get my ¡®throwing cores¡¯ plan started, I need to be careful and not neglect growing as well.  Perhaps one-quarter of my mana held in reserve in case of emergencies, and then use that for growth once everything is safely put away.


    That ring approach just flat did not want to work, but I did manage to adjust the approach to create a traveling shell that can, presumably, deliver a construct.  Almost out of mana though, so I¡¯ll need to try that out tomorrow.  I wonder if I can get the dove scouts to get me more details about the brown area opposite the green splotch, if it is anything like my current area, that could be a good candidate for my first remote core.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    A caravan camp was spotted in the area designated as Expansion 1


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of four doves and four bats.


    Two doves and four bats returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 19</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    Storage


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 19, Mana:261/288,  Size: 576, Ten upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Well, good news, as the shell can successfully deliver a construct intact, but the shell needs at least twice as much mana as the construct to survive long enough to be useful.


    On the plus side, the more mana spent on the shell, the longer it lasts and thus the farther it can deliver the construct.


    Not enough mana left to try with a secondary core, but it generally seems to work, and I can even control which direction it travels, sort of.


    The extended scouting report confirms that the target area is very similar to my current area, at least before I got here.


    So similar in fact that I wonder if they were created by the same process or entity.


    Something that may become an issue should the creator of these areas come back to perform maintenance or something, but otherwise, probably not critical.


    More importantly, I got a better approximation on how far away it is.  If I were to try to create a path, even just one area wide and on the surface, it would take at least fifteen thousand mana to reach it, perhaps twice that.  Suddenly spending a thousand mana or more to develop the technique of delivering a sub-core that distance seems a lot more frugal.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    Area designated Expansion 1 has been scouted: no new hazards identified.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of four doves and four bats.


    Four doves and four bats returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 20</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    Storage


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 20, Mana:258/291,  Size: 583, Ten upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I wonder if I could designate that green area and send all four doves to scout that?  The falcon probably would not get all four, I hope.


    Success!  Sort of at least.  I managed to deploy a sub-core outside of my dungeon, but when I was trying to place it one hundred spaces towards the scouted target, it ended up closer to twenty spaces away, and in the direction the sand-wind came from instead.  At least according to the bats.


    I really need a better way to perceive the outside world.  I guess it is time to use an upgrade then.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Feature: Spies</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Really?  I already know that that one is useless without a counterpart.


    Perhaps it is a prerequisite?


    I still have another nine upgrades available, so I have plenty of lee-way for relocating if needed, and with my scouts checking the barren terrain in all directions, it would be difficult for them to approach without at least one full day of notice.


    Ok, I¡¯ll try again for a way to directly locate things outside my dungeon.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


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    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Feature: Follow Invader</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That looks more promising actually.


    I think I will try it out on that mouse trying to sneak up to the water for a drink.


    Ten mana is more than I expected, but on the plus side, I know exactly where that mouse has been in the last day.  I can even see what the ground looked like at the time.  Interesting, I wonder how long this lasts?


    That should help me know where to aim, at least if I can get a scout to retrieve an invader from the target area, but some way to tell how well I am aiming would be important as well.  I can hardly afford to launch secondary cores at random and hope to get close to the target area.


    I have been able to launch both grass and a secondary core, but the grass fails to form if it is not in my domain.  I wonder if I could send out some of my mana as if I were trying to claim an area and place that in the transport construct?


    Oh, that is nice, I can see where it lands, inside or outside my dungeon.  If it is outside it dissipates fairly quickly, but until it does, I can feel the location just as surely as I can tell the location of any other part of my dungeon.


    I suppose that might make that new follow feature less essential, but using both can only help.


    For now I am going to practice targeting the rock my tracked mouse invader sleeps under during the day.


    Unsurprisingly, knowing where my target is, knowing where my previous attempts landed, and getting lots of attempts due to the cheapness of the missile, makes this whole ¡®targeting distant objects¡¯ much easier.


    Not easy though, as it seems that the further away the target is, the more finicky it is to hit that target.


    And when I start targeting specific coordinates even a tenth of the way towards my target area for the first core-throw, I cannot hit the specific target at all I either hit the near-side of a dune in front of the target, or I hit the near-side of a dune beyond my target, even with the smallest shift in aiming I am capable of performing.


    And that is not just the shape of the sand, I have verified that this odd angle-size change takes place all the way up until my pedestal blocks closer targets.  In part this may be good, if every space took as much of an angle as those spaces close to my pedestal, then I could not target very far at all, but if it keeps shrinking, my target may well be smaller than my aiming resolution.


    Before I finish up for the day, I am having some second thoughts about not having a day-time watcher, so I think I¡¯ll add another dove spawn to the nest so I can have a watcher on-hand while the other four are trying to get a look at the green area guarded by the hawk.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of five doves and four bats.


    One dove and four bats returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


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    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 21</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Storage


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 21, Mana:275/305,  Size: 611, core 21, Ten upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Ok, this is a bit of a problem, the furthest that I can shoot my ¡®claim ball¡¯ and hit anything is a bit over seventeen hundred spaces.  While that is a lot further than I can reasonably claim across the surface, it is still less than a tenth of the estimated distance to Expansion 1.


    While different directions vary the actual distance by a fair bit, there is a notable exception: if I hit one of my trees.  Clearly, tall things block this effort, so presumably there is a particularly tall pile of sand around that range.


    Now the trees can be avoided by just going up or down a floor, so presumably the same would work against the sand hill.  Down means digging a tunnel to shoot through, which would likely be highly effective, but also lose the whole point of the exercise, so a floor up then.


    Well that worked, at least partially, as I managed to target more than twice as far away with the targeting core one floor up from the surface.  It seems odd that it is the same distance in all directions, perhaps the magic that keeps these patches of dirt from being buried in sand pushes the sand away, and pushes it further the higher up it is so it is not at risk of collapsing on top of the dirt and burying it?


    I wonder if every floor will double the distance I can target before it is all blocked by the piled up sand?  Should that be the case, five floors should let me target an area more than thirty times as far away, and plenty far to target Expansion 1.  If it adds instead of multiplies, it may be more like twenty floors


    Of course actually knowing where it is will take some effort too, and I have used quite a lot of mana with all of this, so I think I will build my targeting tower five spaces tall, then send one of my doves to pick up one of the smaller interlopers, pause for a moment to let me target it for following, then drop it in the middle of Expansion 1 so that I can target it.  It looks like I still have a vague memory of everywhere that first mouse went for a day both before and after I targeted it, so that should make targeting Expansion 1 from my tower pretty easy.


    I wonder if I could do something similar to those core killers the next time they come across one of my cores?


    I do not have any sensation about where my old dungeons might be, so clearly the location memory would not carry over should my main core get shattered, but I only lose a sub-core that should not be too bad.  And I doubt they will expect sections of my dungeon to be thousands of spaces apart from each other, nor will they likely expect me to be able to follow them back to their nest so I can do to them what they have done to so many dungeons.


    Yes, I like this plan.  Distribute a large number of sub-cores with bats and doves for scouts, track down the core killers to their nest, and then what?  Dig out a huge empty dungeon under their nest and destroy all of the support pillars causing the nest to fall into a deep pit, turning it all into rubble?  Judging by what happened to my trees, that will do bad things to anyone inside the dungeon, but I may need to test how tool-user structures handle falling into pits.  I wonder if I can find my previous dungeon and see what happened to the structure above the sub-core?


    Not sure what I really want for my growth mana, perhaps half of it to expand my test-range and the other half to plant grass on my core room?  That works.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 99.9729%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    Two doves were lost.


    Area designated Hazard 1 has been scouted.


    The oasis designated Hazard 1 contains a variety of plants and structures around a central body of water that is slightly larger than the one in the dungeon.  The green area is substantially larger than the dungeon, with an irrigated area of slightly over three acres.


    There are several permanent structures and a large sheltered area for temporary structures.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of six doves and four bats.


    Four doves and four bats returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 Expansion 1

    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 22</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    ¡®Deep¡¯ core room


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 22, Mana:318/339, Size: 679, core 21, Eleven upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Ok, my dove found a worm to carry to Expansion 1, and while it was eaten not long after it was dropped off, I now know the exact range and direction to target from my tower.


    So let¡¯s start with a five floor tower.


    Or perhaps not, as my dungeon instincts say that more than three will fall over. Ok, five tall surrounded by two tall, that works.


    Well it sort of works. Instead of thirty or six times my starting range, it is less than four.


    If towers give a diminishing return on range, I may need to determine the most efficient height for delivering sub-cores, because beyond a certain range, I will need to spend more on the tower than on the core.


    Looks like a six floor tower only gives me another six hundred sixty spaces over the five floor, with seven floors giving about six hundred ten spaces over six floors, and finally eight floors gives about five hundred seventy additional spaces. Even if I assume an extra hundred mana on top of the cost of the tower and remote-placed sub-core and ignore the cost of removing the tower, the seven floor tower gets me further per mana spent than the eight floor tower, so no sense wasting mana on building my test-tower higher than that.


    Well, since I have a plan, I might as well carry it out, it will probably take four ¡®steps¡¯ to get to Exploration 1, but if I bury them deep under the sand, perhaps they will be even more difficult to find.


    Location verification shot successful, 9592 spaces towards Exploration 1, another claim shot, just to make sure the sub-core lands in friendly territory, followed immediately by the bundled up sub-score pattern.


    Success! -ish. This sand stuff is awful to build on. First I need to dig out the sand, then immediately claim it and refill it, so I can then dig a chimney down to the next floor.


    Hmm, can I partially fill with a chimney already dug out?


    That works, so now it only costs about twice what it should to dig into this sand stuff.


    Even making a chimney out of dirt feels unstable in all this sand, but at least I find some nice stable rock about five floors down, giving me a stable anchor for my construction. Without that I expect the next tower would fall over and sink even if I made it twice as wide as it should need to be.


    That is it for today¡¯s experimental budget, but I can spend the growth mana getting my new sub-core settled into its new hidden home.


    Probably need to tear down the tower I used tomorrow, although it might be a good idea to send out a core for the first step towards Hazard 1 before I do so.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of six doves and four bats.


    Six doves and four bats returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 23</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 1-A


    15 into rock under sand, 4-tall ¡®chimney¡¯ through sand


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 23, Mana:338/382, Size: 764, Eleven upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    It looks like the sand shifts sound some, based on how the chimney is now sticking out above the sand a little bit. That suggests it would be important to remove that chimney to keep the under-sand expansion hidden.


    Speaking of hiding things, that tower is yelling out that there is something going on here for all to see, so I need to go ahead and create a sub-core towards Hazard 1 so I can get rid of it.


    So dial in, stabilize, deploy. Nice 9620 spaces from the tower.


    Build a chimney through the sand. Four deep again. Probably because I am targeting the most distant sand, and that is the top of one of the sand-hills. Dig another fifteen-deep into the rock, core room with self-destruct trap, move the core, remove the chimney, Secret passage at the surface of the rock. Ok hidden core room established. Remove the targeting tower, and ninety six mana remaining. That is just enough for most of the trees to fill Hazard 1A.


    I suppose it is nice having enough mana to expand that much in a single day, but needing two two more before I have a chance to get to Exploration 1 suggests this could take a while if this ocean of sand is very large.


    I think I need to send out scouts in all four directions(detouring around hazard 1 of course) to find the edges of all this sand. Fortunately I have six doves now, so I can keep two on look-out.


    Probably one full day out or until they find the edge of the sand, then return and report.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    Sand gives way to rocky terrain 80-100 miles North


    Sand gives way to rocky terrain 80-100 miles South


    Sand gives way to rocky terrain 50-60 miles West of center of dungeon


    Sand gives way to rocky terrain 100-120 miles East of center of dungeon.


    Expansion 1 located 20-40 miles West.


    Hazard 1 located 20-40 miles East.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of six doves and four bats.


    Six doves and four bats returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 24</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Hazard 1-A


    15 into rock under sand, S at bedrock


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 24, Mana:327/430, Size: 860, Twelve upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Wow, up to twelve upgrades available now, that is quite a few, and perhaps I should start thinking about more options for handling the core killers should finding and building under their base not be feasible.


    I have seen how tool users can draw in invaders, which I am not keen on. It might be reasonable with several camps added together to allow for improved equipment, but that still seems likely to have people out looking for dungeons in the area.


    Alternatively, the animals seem to work just fine for being around without bringing back invaders.


    The article on nests mentioned wolves and bears in dens, and that combining multiple dens would allow for spawning larger versions. Presumably I could use additional upgrades to be able to summon them directly like I did with giant rats, but that seems wasteful now that I know how to get them with just a little mana.


    Speaking of mana, I do not have quite the mana for a full step today, so I¡¯ll want to go with a minimal new-core room, which leaves me with enough mana to finish planting Hazard 1A, get the Den upgrade, and spend a little mana on finishing Expedition 1A.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Feature: Dens</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of six doves and four bats.


    Six doves and four bats returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 25</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 1-A


    15 into rock under sand, 1 chimney


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 1-B


    15 into rock under sand, 4 chimney


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Hazard 1-A


    15 into rock under sand, S at bedrock


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%"> </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 25, Mana:370/446, Size: 892, core 22, Eleven upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I have enough mana to deploy another sub-core, which should be the last one before I reach Expansion 1, and this time I can even afford to build out the full core room as part of it. Feels a little strange to finish the new one when I have two others that still need attention, but that also means I¡¯ll be done with it once I launch the next sub-core and tidy it up.


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    It feels expensive to be moving my targeting core twice a day, but it does feel much more secure in the storage area where invaders cannot get to it with their enslavement devices before I can destroy it.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of six doves and four bats.


    Six doves and four bats returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 26</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 1-A


    15 into rock under sand, S at bedrock


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 1-C


    15 into rock under sand, 4 chimney


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 26, Mana:409/496, Size: 992, Twelve upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Huh, back up to twelve available upgrades, I guess I am getting bigger faster than I am using them.


    On the topic of getting bigger, my next sub-core should get me to Expansion 1, so I need to plan how I want to lay that out.


    I will want to have new scout nests, so that means a connection to the surface.


    It would be nice if I had some idea how effective the narrow, water-filled tunnel dozens of floors high is when it comes to slowing down invaders, so I could know if using a similar plan would be effective.


    Secret doors were effective against the harvesters, but not against the core killers.


    Defenders were partially effective against weak invaders, but not against the core killers either.


    It seems that once they find the entrance, invaders always want to go inside, and tool-using defenders make them want to look for the entrance.


    What if I were to have a bunch of big, dangerous animal defenders on the surface around the dungeon entrance. Would that make invaders less interested in searching out the entrance or more interested in fighting the defenders?


    Might I be able to use defenders that invaders would not realize were defenders?


    I do not recall seeing anything that looked particularly dangerous visiting my water, but I could send out some of my scouts to see if there is anything more dangerous than the fox and the hawk that they have seen thus far.


    Ok, scouting orders given, now back to planning for Expansion 1.


    If I used all available upgrades, I would be at Core 34, so I want at least thirty five floors down below the surface for a back-up main core room, probably forty.


    It is only a backup option, so maintaining contact with the surface should be fine so long as it can be cut off should it be needed as the primary. The ¡®H¡¯ shape will hopefully still work as a way to cause delay by increasing the area that needs to be examined for hidden passages, but perhaps it should be a bit different so they cannot use one as a guide to the other?


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    Extended scouting was able to identify a Cheetah, a small pack of coyotes, a Snake and a Fox as the largest predator spotted by each of the extended scouts.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of six doves and four bats.


    Six doves and four bats returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 27</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 1 Vertical


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 1A


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 1 Core


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 1 Surface


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 27, Mana:443/560, Size: 1120, core 22, Thirteen upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Sounds like coyotes are a reasonable option for disguised defenders. I should see if I can access any additional information about coyotes and related canid defender options when I finish today.


    I am thinking a four-by-four pond is probably sufficient, surrounded by multiple layers of grass. The trees are nice for mana, but the fruits are clearly special, even outside, while the grass does not have the shimmer when on the surface, so hopefully it will not be nearly as notable. The dove nest can go on an outcropping one or two floors tall. The Coyote den will probably go next to it, perhaps a slab of rock or two leaning against the outcropping? I would not want it to be too obviously a dungeon after all.


    Without the trees, I probably want the grass to be wider to pretend to keep sand out of the water, probably four wide, making it twelve by twelve except for the four-by-four in the middle. No, wait, the grass should change to reflect the environment, so grass in the water might even be better. Even if it costs a bit of mana, it will make water mana and that may be better for keeping the water full.


    Outside the grass, probably claim a couple wide so there is room on one corner for the coyote den, the dove nest and the bat nest.


    Right, I need the canids before I can spawn them.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Defender: Canid</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    There we go, a perfect twelve by twelve square of grass with a four by four pond in the middle, all looking perfectly natural, even having some rock outcroppings nearby with doves, bats and coyotes making their homes in close proximity.


    Even if the core killers stopped here for a drink of water, they would have no reason to suspect a dungeon, as the sub core is more than forty floors down, hidden behind no less than four hidden doors, all under water.


    One more tree to plant, so Akasha, please tell me about canid defenders.


    Canids range from the small and solitary fox to the larger pack forming wolves and Dire wolves. This includes jackals, coyotes, and many domesticated breeds of dogs. Canids can be spawned from Dens.


    While the base species can easily pass as natural animals in the correct environments, environmentally flavored ones such as the ice flavored winter wolf generally will not.


    While canids are capable of swimming short distances, canids spawned in water will instead be Sea Dogs, better known as Sharks. While sharks are often larger and more dangerous than wolves, larger specimens require relatively large bodies of water, making them difficult to use unless the dungeon expands into such a body.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    A caravan was spotted camping roughly fifteen miles west of Expansion 1


    Shortly before midnight, the caravan is seven miles west of Expansion 1, traveling east.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of nine doves, six bats, and three coyotes.


    Nine doves, six bats, and three coyotes returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 28</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 1 Surface


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Start Surface


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 1A


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%"> </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 28, Mana:621/688, Water: 33/688 Size: 1376, core 23, Fourteen upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    It is good to see that I can still get those when needed. It does not even hurt any more to access them. Sharks sound like they would be terrible for invaders to deal with deep underground, I wonder how much water they would need to be effective?


    If I were to take that twenty one long length of pipe and pass it through a fifteen-by-fifteen-by-fifteen pool, that feels like enough for a large shark. That one tank would also be roughly three times the size of my current dungeon, taking five days worth of mana just to dig it out. Also, it would be more than four spaces wide and collapse before I could finish building it. Planning on the nine support pillars, each fifteen floors tall also feels like it would collapse long before getting to that size.


    I guess sharks will need a large open-top tank, or an existing body of water as described.


    When I focus on spawning sharks from a den, I do not get any sort of impression on what would work. Same for sharks from a nest, and as a control, I also get the same lack of reaction when I focus on trying to spawn a canid from a nest. I suppose there is at least one other type of spawner? I wonder what it is?


    Oh, a caravan, this time traveling the other direction. I wonder if it is the same one.


    Now there is a nice wide grassy area they can set up their tents on. I wonder if I should make the grass wider around the trees at the other pond as well.


    As the caravan is close to where the next core should land, that will need to wait for tomorrow night when they are not in the target area, and when they are not close enough to see me building towers in the middle of the night.


    I guess for now I will be finishing up the two partial core rooms, then tidying up those chimneys into secret doors so the caravan does not stumble across them tomorrow night. I''ll get that Bear upgrade then use anything left over to expand on the surface and place more grass.


    Actually, now that I have tidied up the core rooms and chimneys, instead of just adding ice to the water effect in most of the E1 H-pipes, what if I planted some grass in the ice area I already have at the bottom of the starting H, that should let me gradually grow the icy part without as much of a normal mana investment. Efficiency is important, so long as it does not leave me vulnerable at least.


    It looks like icy-water grass not only works but provides both ice and water mana, only half as much of each, but that part is not really a surprise.


    If I get additional mana pools for specialty mana, having more environment types seems a lot more appealing, even fire which is supposed to take mana to maintain. I am not sure what I can use that mana for aside from building and maintaining elemental areas, but even that will save me some mana.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Defender: Bears</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    It seems like so long as I just try to access information, then I can pass without notice, and only if I make requests or try other interactions does it get noticed.


    On that note, I think I want more information about spawners, as I cannot seem to figure out how sharks are supposed to be spawned. I am pretty sure they would not count as tool users, and they do not spawn from nests or dens, so there must be something else I am missing.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Oh, right, the caravan. I guess I¡¯ll be waiting until after they leave this evening to get that spawner information.


    They seem confused and concerned about the new water, but after poking and prodding at it for a while, they fill their barrels and water their beasts.


    They seem wary of the spawners as well, the beasts and tool users both, so hopefully that indicates that they should be good defenders, but are generally not remarkable for the area.


    They have some of their own defenders keeping an eye on the coyote den. They seemed much more relaxed once the coyotes left to scout the surrounding area. They also seemed happy to see the coyotes return to their den while they were packing up to leave.


    The caravan gave the coyote den a wide berth as it departed.


    There are two classes of spawners, basic and advanced. Basic spawners are nests, dens, and camps. These can produce most types of defenders and are easy to both place and use.


    But some defender types require specialized regions from which to spawn.


    For those defenders, an applicable region will need to be manually constructed and then designated as a spawning region.


    The typical example is horses or other ruminants spawning in open grassland. For this spawner you would need to have a large area of grasses and other leafy plants then designate the region as an advanced spawn point. Then appropriate defenders can be spawned there.


    Most larger aquatic species, such as sharks and whales will be produced from a spawner designated on a sufficiently large cube of water.


    As it is not something that is useful to starting dungeons, Advanced spawning must be unlocked with an upgrade.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 99.9729%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    A caravan sent the day camping at Expansion 1 and left towards the Core as the sun was setting.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of Twelve doves, six bats, and six coyotes.


    Twelve doves, eight bats, and six coyotes returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 That is really high

    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 29</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 1-B


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Surface(Start)


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Vertical aspect(Start)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Vertical aspect(E1)


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%"> </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">


    status Day 29, Mana:805/866, Water: 69/866, Ice: 2/866  Size: 1733, core 24,


    Sixteen upgrades available


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Wow, squaring the surface and those two core rooms really bumped up my total size.  More than three hundred fifty area and almost two hundred daily mana is quite a lot.  I think I can reach the half-way point towards the edge of the sand.  I should start planning for how to find those core-killers.  I really do not know how to go about finding them unless they are trying to come and kill me.


    Not something I am eager for, but unless I can find another option, I may need to unlock goblins so I can send them out to draw in some invaders to either imprison or kill.  Probably kill, as using the prison did not summon the core killers.  Then again, they did come when I did not have any defenders at all, and just a bunch of trees getting harvested every day.


    Perhaps I just need to find some invader-spawners and set up an orchard near them to draw in the core-killers?


    In any case, I¡¯ll need to make sure I have plenty of space on the surface so I can tag most of them with Follow Invader.  Perhaps even have other, better hidden, bases around it with plenty of scouts for both early-warning and back-up.


    Ok, I like that plan, find some invader structures, build an orchard for them to harvest, then follow the core-killers home when they come to try and enslave the core connected to the orchard.


    Perhaps I could even use the invaders that are based at the oasis east of my start?  Possibly, but they should soon know about the new oasis with my trees near-by, so by the time I could establish an orchard there, it might already be redundant.  I¡¯ll keep that as a back-up option should I not find any better options to the west.


    Almost done.  I wonder what information I Can get on core killers?


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    A caravan spent the day camping between Expansion 1 and the Core, setting out towards the Core as the sun was setting.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of Twelve doves, eight bats, and six coyotes.


    Twelve doves, eight bats, and six coyotes returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    While most invaders have interests beyond plundering the resources of a dungeon or seeking a boon from reaching the core of a dungeon, there are also occasional invaders with a grudge against a specific dungeon, or even against dungeons in general.


    These core-killing invaders will happily smash any core they are able to find, costing the dungeon a substantial amount of mana to replace them.  If such invaders find the main core of a dungeon, the dungeon will need to rely on any surviving sub-cores until the main core can be restored.


    In the rare case of either a single-core dungeon being or the core killers successfully finding all the cores of a dungeon, the dungeon will need to rely on its counterpart to collect the mana and restore the main core.


    This can be further delayed if the counterpart was dispersed prior to the loss of the last core, requiring the counterpart to first reintegrate itself before it can reconstitute the core.


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 30</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 2A


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 2B


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 2 surface


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%"> </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


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    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">


    status Day 30, Mana:878/998, Water: 105/998, Ice: 4/998  Size: 1997, core 24,


    Seventeen upgrades available


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Ok, today should get me out of this sandy wasteland and hopefully close to somewhere with a bunch of invader dwellings.  Starting with E2C, basically identical to A and B from yesterday, then for E2 we start another modified H filled with water and a nice pond on top to help us hide the secret door into the water-chimney.  Make the hook at the bottom a little larger than last time because that just felt too small, throw a bunch of water mana to fill it up.


    Huh, using water mana to fill the pond and tunnels only costs half as much as using normal mana, that seems useful.  Now use some ice mana to make the bottom of the hook even less hospitable.  Plant some grass in the pond and ice¡­  hmm, three spaces at the bottom of the hook is not an even number for the ice-water grass.  Perhaps I can plant it on the sides of the chimney?  Feels ok to try.  Huh, that works, also makes the chimney half-clogged with ice-water-weed.  That seems like it would make navigating that passage even more annoying to invaders.   I should add more water and ice-water weeds to my passages.


    Oh, right, I still need to do the surface work and make my scout spawners.  A bit short on mana to do it properly, but I can grow towards one corner instead of evenly and still get my spawers properly situated, along with being a bit further from the pond, as I do not want invaders to feel like they need to attack my scouts to get water.  I wonder if I can move the spawners at Expansion 1?  I know I can create new spawners and add new spawns to them and then destroy the old spawners, but that feels a bit wasteful.  I¡¯ll need to grow Expansion 1 a bit tomorrow and see if I can transfer spawns from one den to another.


    For today, I have the most critical parts done and enough mana for a little bit of grass.  I really need to fix how lopsided Expansion 2 is as soon as I have the mana available though, it feels wrong to be so lop-sided.


    Ok, before I finish up for the day, I¡¯ll want my doves to scout the three directions other than back towards Expansion 1, the coyotes should scout the vicinity of Expansion 2, and what information can I get about the core-killers causing permanent damage to my dungeon?


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 99.9729%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    A collection of stone structures were located west of the dungeon.  Some areas between the structures were covered with cloth.


    A small number of invaders were spotted among the structures, but as the number of invaders seen was much smaller than the number of structures, it is likely that this cluster is engaged in conflict with another cluster.


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    A caravan spent the day camping at the surface of the dungeon, setting out towards Hazard 1 as the sun was setting.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of fifteen doves, ten bats, and nine coyotes.


    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    Fifteen doves, ten bats, and nine coyotes returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    While an invader will occasionally develop an ability to cause permanent damage to a core or counterpart, such abilities are cursed and will rapidly destroy anyone who uses them.  Because such an ability requires a monomaniacal hatred of dungeons, anyone who develops such an ability will quickly destroy themselves by striking against sub-cores and trap cores, limiting the damage that can be caused to any well established dungeon.


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    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 31</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


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    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 2 surface


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 2 vertical aspect


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 2 C


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 2


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 31, Mana:1041/1156, Water: 137/1156, Ice: 6/1156  Size: 2312,


    Nineteen upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Ok, this is getting more and more concerning.  At first I was thinking it was an issue with the sands being unstable, but even for my sub-dungeons that landed on dirt or stone, the tilt is just getting bigger and bigger the farther I go.


    Expansion 1 is only tilted by a little more than one measure in four thousand, but Expansion 2 is twice that, at more than one measure of rise for every two thousand measures of distance.  If I cannot make things even again, then the farther I get from my core, the less stable my structures will get.  I am going to need to start making my structures more robust to handle this tilting if it gets much worse.  Perhaps the most concerning part is that my structural sense insists that everything is flat and sturdy.   If I cannot trust my structural sense to identify when things start getting unsound, that could be catastrophic.


    I could try re-creating structures that have proven to be stable in the past, ignoring my structural sense crying out to me that it is uneven and unstable, but I really do not like the idea that my most relied upon sense is failing me.  Do I even have any other senses?  My sense of where different parts of me are in relation to other parts probably counts as a sense, and that is what is telling me that Expansion 2 is tilted relative to my core, and that Expansion 1 is half as tilted in relation to my core.


    I suppose I have an intruder sense that lets me locate and derive details about intruders.  Equipment, designations, types, body-type(That first centipede really through me for a loop, as I was pretty sure it was an insect, but then it went from six to eight legs and I wondered if it was some new kind of spider, then there were another pair of legs, and another, and they just kept coming.  At least that prepared me for the millipede that came by the next day. Those -pedes have a really weird body-type.  I wonder what other types of -pedes I¡¯ll encounter).


    I wonder if the scouting reports count as a sense?


    No, as my only sense other than my intruder sense, I do not have any real alternatives should it start to fail me.  It seems odd that it would disagree with itself, but I¡¯ll just be careful about putting anything delicate into new constructions, and hope my entire dungeon does not collapse.


    Well at least claiming the surface has little chance of collapsing anything, and Expansion 2 really needs some attention.  First, I think I need to expand the claimed area around the pond to be at least as large as the grassy area around Expansion 1, and even out the grass to a two-space wide perimeter around the pond.


    Next, I think I need a few upgrades.  First I think I want advanced spawning.  Wit my current rate of growth, I will be able to afford to make my own shark pool sooner than later, and it would almost be worth having to start all over to watch the core-killers dig through the icy-slush at the bottom of the shark-tank searching for a secret entrance while being attacked by half a dozen sharks big enough to bite them in half in one bite!


    [Upgrade Complete, New Feature: Advanced Spawning]


    Next, those beasts that carry things for the caravans, they feel like they fall into that Ruminant category mentioned by Advanced Spawning.  The tool users seem unconcerned by their proximity, as opposed to the coyotes, and one of my scouts saw a few of them wandering around by themselves, so presumably they are common in this area, and could make less obtrusive scouts than the coyotes, especially to get a look at the structures and what, if anything is hidden under all of that cloth between the stone structures.


    [Upgrade Complete, New Defender: Ruminants]


    Ok, now I can put down some camel spawning in my grassy areas, but first I should see about getting closer to that cluster of invader spawners.


    If I wanted to be patient, I could have a scout drop of a small invader next to the closest structure, spending my over eight hundred remaining mana in claiming more area and putting in grass and spawners, but I can do that while waiting on the core killers to show up, so instead I¡¯ll put up a tower and launch claim-shots in the direction away from Expansion 1.


    Hmm, nothing in a mostly direct line, I¡¯ll need to try to broaden my angle a bit.


    Woa, I just claimed a bit more than a hundred and seventy thousand spaces away.  It was really high up too, as far as I can tell.


    I guess the structures can wait, as usually traveling that far would take more than a dozen steps.  Perhaps being up high will let me start taking bigger steps?


    Ok, so that is a bit awkward, I managed to plant a sub-core at that distant location. But it is tilted at quite the angle.  At least my structural sense agrees that it is not a tenable angle.  The question is, where can I make a reasonable entrance?


    Lots of large rocks and a fairly steep incline.


    I needed to expand my surface space to nearly a hundred spaces before finding a reasonably hard to get to, but well angled entry for digging my entry chimney.  On the plus side, the grass I planted on the surface turned out to be ice-grass.  Possibly because I planted it on a snow patch.


    On the down-side, I do not think I can build much of a tower to increase the range from this base.  On the plus side, this entrance is naturally more than two thousand floors higher than my other entrances, so that should be sufficient for some pretty distant placements.


    Ok, now for the scouts, probably four pidgin scout spawns.  Hmm, the nest gives a warning that the doves may have difficulty in this terrain, but still allows it.  More expensive though, probably due to the ice aspect of the area.  I wonder what that will give them?


    The nest for the bats on the other hand refuses to accept the bat spawns, something about the expected flight ceiling.  I suppose the bats do not generally fly as high as the doves, and being much smaller the cold might be a problem as well.  No, they would be ice-bats, like the birds are ice-doves.  Must just be too high for the bats to get back to the nest.  That falcon that was hunting my doves over at Hazard 1 tended to fly pretty high, I might consider trying to unlock those, or better yet, see if they are part of an entire class I can unlock like the Ruminants.


    Ok, I still need to take a step towards the town before I take down my targeting tower, and this is the angle that I used to get the farthest, so send a claim and core there.


    Huh, this seems to be a slanted outcrop of stone, let''s see how big it is.


    Pretty big, and even odder, it seems to be resting on a much smaller stone with only a relatively small point of contact.  Under the larger piece of rock, close to where it comes out of the ground seems a little damp, so that seems like an ideal place to put a chimney-pool entrance.  Even with a close inspection it might not be obvious that anything has changed, which seems ideal for a hidden core like the ones under the sand, but even better, as I can still claim a sizable part of the surface for scouts and keeping watch.


    I may need to check if I can find or make similar structures around the area where I will be putting in the trap garden core.


    That support point looks pretty small, but my structural sense seems to think it is fine.  Perhaps stone is a better structural element than dirt?  I wonder if I can make a larger room with a stone roof instead of just a layer of mana-infused dirt?


    Hmm, when I look at Expansion 1A with an eye to digging out the support pillar, it feels like the roof will take a little more mana, and I would need to change the target of the core trap, but a nine-by-nine room with stone walls and roof seems doable.  I am pretty sure a fifteen-by-fifteen-by fifteen shark tank would still need at least one support pillar, even if it is made from reinforced stone, but a twenty by twenty tank with a three or four wide pillar in the middle seems like it could work.  It would still take more than five days worth of mana just to dig it out, and probably twice that long to fill with water, but it should work¡­


    Focus, need to hide the new sub-core.   Not enough mana for the full core room template, but I can still dig down thirty floors, then put in the hook and the core room, just not quite enough to fill it with trees yet.


    I¡¯ll need to add a den and some coyotes to Trap A tomorrow, but for tonight I need three of my scouts to each pick up a small invader and drop them at my target areas, one next to the closest structure, then north and one south of the invader spawn area, both between seven and eight thousand spaces away from the invader area, on top of the closest approximation of the stone structure I found in Trap A in their target area.


    Ok, carried invaders are now tracked, so time to focus on a defender group including falcons while I remove the last piece of the targeting tower.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 99.9729%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    An appropriate structure was found north of the area designated Trap and the invader was deposited as instructed.  No such structure was located south of the area designated as Trap, so the invader was deposited in the middle of the search area.


    An invader was deposited against the outer wall of the collection of structures.


    A large body of water was located approximately one hundred miles west of Mountain 1, a small lake less than half a mile long and half that wide was located two and a half miles to the south east.  A larger lake two and a half miles long was located six miles to the north west.


    The mountains extend to the north east and south west.


    Structures were spotted near the lake to the north west, and possible structures were spotted near the shore of the large body of water to the west.


    One ice dove was lost to an eagle.


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    A caravan spent the day camping between the dungeon and Hazard 1, heading away from the dungeon as the sun was setting.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of eighteen doves, ten bats, twelve coyotes, and four ice doves.


    Eighteen doves, ten bats, twelve coyotes  and three ice doves returned.


    There were no kills or resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Raptors include all birds of prey, from the majestic eagle to the common kestrel, and from the nocturnal owl to the omnipresent vulture.  While largely ineffective against armored opponents, a hawk can often maim an unarmored invader if they are still on the surface and not expecting an aerial attack, while a large eagle may be able to carry off smaller invaders or animal companions.  A giant eagle can often lift invaders or pack animals and drop them from great heights while the legendary Roc can usually carry off mounts and beasts of burden, but giant eagles can be difficult to spawn without claiming the peak of a large mountain, while the legendary Roc will rarely spawn anywhere but the tallest mountain in the range.  Elemental raptors often add elemental damage to their claw attacks

 Setting the trap

    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 32</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Mountain 1


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Mountain 1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Trap A


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Trap A


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Mountain 1


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Trap A


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"> </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">


    Status Day 32, Mana:1193/1445, Water: 163/1445, Ice: 28/1445 Size:2890, core 26,


    Nineteen upgrades available


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    It sounds like that smallest lake without any reported structures is roughly five hundred by two hundred spaces. That should be plenty big for some sharks, perhaps even giant sharks.


    On top of that, I think I want to get the raptor defenders and use the other nest for some ice eagles, or possibly giant ice eagles.


    That sounds like a good plan for activities while I am waiting on the core killers to try and enslave my trap core.


    With almost twelve hundred mana available today, I should have plenty available to deploy three sub-cores, especially as one of those cores is not intended to be hidden.


    On the other hand, if I give it a smaller version of the water tunnel defense, I can test that out. Not more than twelve deep, as I want them to be able to find it, but I can at least determine how hard it is for them to deal with.


    First things first, just under eight hundred mana to duplicate the Trap A layout north and south of the spawn area, giving me about four hundred for the trap itself and to add wing-like extensions to the three observation areas. Hmm, I probably want to add another observation area on the fourth side, but that will need to wait until tomorrow. Twelve deep with the normal icy hook, but I do not think I want to bother with grass or trees in the trap core room, it is not expected to be a long-term structure after all, and I am already going to need to spend a lot on surface trees.


    So, after I add the missing trees to the Trap A core room, I am down to about three hundred mana to use for baiting the trap. If I put in a ten-xy-ten(or eleven-by-ten if you count the areas next to the wall, but those cannot have trees), I can put fifty trees in that area for a couple hundred mana, leaving me enough to add the missing trees to Trap A, a nest to each of the trap observation posts, and a dove scout in Trap 1E.


    That puts the trap at about half-again the number of trees I had in my orchard when the hillside fell in. if I add that many again tomorrow, hopefully that will make some nice tempting bait for the core-killers.


    While I am at it, Trap A no longer seems like a useful designation. I think Trap 1, Trap 1E, Trap 1N, and Trap 1S are good names for these trap-related designations.


    So, how many sub-cores do I have now? Fifteen? Seems like a lot. Most of them with their own entrance and even surface area. Except for the half-dozen buried under the sand. Trying to have any sort of surface area there would stand out too much to work for a hidden base.


    Although with the trap observation areas, I am adding a lot of area without mana generation to fill it, so I may want to look at adding more mana to my existing areas going forward. I could add another hundred and twenty grass to my starting surface area for example, and there is probably room for twice that many more trees even without expanding the area.


    Although I doubt I really want to paint that large of a target on the area with my main core, so that should probably wait until I build a more secure area under that lake near M1.


    Speaking of the lake, tomorrow I am going to need my ice doves to find invaders to take to the lake so I can target it.


    I probably want to get the locations of each of the shores so I can have a better understanding of the exact size and location of the lake. I do not think I can remotely place a core on water, so I¡¯ll need to start it next to the shore and then claim down into the water, so knowing where those shores are will be important.


    Hmm, I do not seem to have any invaders clustering around M1, so I may need to have them bring invaders from the lake so I can track where they came from.


    So I¡¯ll instruct my ice doves to fetch some invaders from around the lake and bring them to M1 in time for the day change. Hmm, with only three Ice doves, I guess one to keep watch on M1, and the other two will grab invaders from opposite shores, then land briefly on the shore at the adjacent compass point before bringing them back to M1 for tracking?


    Sounds like a plan.


    Now, before I take down the last pieces of the aiming tower I used to place my three new sub-cores, what do I want to query from the information source?


    If actual damage to the dungeon is supposed to be rare and difficult, what information can I get about them trying to take control of my cores?


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    It seems that they found the grove. They seem very excited about the trees, good.


    There seems to be a lot of interest in them, lots of invaders coming to look at the trees


    Lots of pointing and yelling.


    Finally, once it starts growing darker, one invader comes into the trees with an axe and a lamp, sets the lamp on the ground and starts chopping down the trees!


    Really?


    At least the invader gives up once their lamp starts to go out, having chopped down the fifteen trees closest to the wall.


    Hopefully they will leave some of them long enough to discover the fruit, otherwise this trap will not work very well.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    An appropriate structure was found north of the area designated Trap and the invader was deposited as instructed. No such structure was located south of the area designated as Trap, so the invader was deposited in the middle of the search area.


    An invader was deposited against the outer wall of the collection of structures.


    A large body of water was located approximately one hundred miles west of Mountain 1, a small lake less than half a mile long and half that wide was located two and a half miles to the south east. A larger lake two and a half miles long was located six miles to the north west.


    The mountains extend to the north east and south west.


    Structures were spotted near the lake to the north west, and possible structures were spotted near the shore of the large body of water to the west.


    One ice dove was lost to an eagle.


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    A caravan spent the day camping at Hazard 1, heading away from the dungeon as the sun was setting.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of nineteen doves, twelve bats, twelve coyotes, and three ice doves.


    Eighteen doves, ten bats, twelve coyotes and Three ice dove returned.


    There were two invaders killed and no resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Some invaders are not content with allowing a dungeon to grow and develop naturally, and will want to seize control of one or more dungeon cores. When this occurs, it is usually best to close all connections to the lost core(s) and treat them as destroyed. While control of such cores will be regained once the controller dies, this can take decades and can even be subverted in some cases. If the stolen core(s) re-open the connection to other cores, they can be used to subvert dungeon control and even take control of other cores. This is especially problematic when the main core is subverted, as it will take most of the connected dungeon territory, and produces more mana than individual sub-cores.


    To resist such attempts, it is best to cut-off any probes made by subverted cores, claim territory away from it, and eventually reclaim or destroy the core itself, assuming the uncontrolled cores can either out-produce or out-maneuver the subverted cores, otherwise the entire dungeon may be taken over and controlled by the invader.


    An alternate approach is to send defenders to destroy the controlling invader, the means of control, or even the controlled core itself. This is especially effective if a dungeon has several separated sections, allowing multiple sections to work together against any captured section(s).


    As a last resort, a dungeon that is losing territory to seized core(s) can place a distant sub-core with a significant physical barrier between that and the main dungeon, potentially allowing the dungeon to create a new territory from which to assault the captured territory once it has built up the capacity to fight back.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 33</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Trap 1N and 1S


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Trap 1N and 1S


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Trap 1N and 1S


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Trap 1


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Trap 1


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 33, Mana:1288/1725, Water: 154/1725, Ice: 43/1725 Size: 3451,


    Twenty Two upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I am not sure if the issue is having the ice doves carry the invaders, or if the issue is carrying those invaders into a naturally ice aspected area(as evidenced by the ice grass when all I did was plant grass outside), but one or both of those was apparently not survivable for whatever sorts of invaders the doves managed to collect from around the lake.


    Well, the ice doves are back, even if their passengers have expired. I wonder if I could track the doves?


    Ok, that was unpleasant, for a few moments it felt like I was both in my normal areas, and offset from my normal location a small amount, while also overlapping myself. Looks like the tracking effect only lasts for a few moments when used on one of my defenders, which is fortunate, as it also seems to cause some sort of odd feed-back. On the plus side, I still have the historic information for the day before tracking started. Or at least I do for the places it landed. It seems that such history is limited to places where it was on the ground, so I cannot track locations that are completely surrounded by air? I wonder if that would apply to water as well, or if it is limited to my opposite element? I¡¯ll need to test that once I have established a base under the lake.


    Seems like that dove visited a couple spots in that direction, and otherwise stayed in the air when away from the nest.


    OK, let¡¯s see if I can brace myself to lessen the effect when I track the other dove to try and get the other reference points.


    Still not a fun experience, but it was both shorter and milder than the first time, so the bracing probably helped.


    Ok, now that I have an idea where the lake is, I¡¯ll move my targeting core up top and see if I can target it. Hopefully, as it is less than a third of the distance I usually target, and this peak is much higher up than my targeting towers.


    After scanning the area with a bunch of shots, it seems that there is a ridge or something blocking direct access to the shore of the lake, but also the side of the ridge on the far side of the lake is also pretty steep, so I can still get fairly close, even if the stability of the landing point might be questionable.


    Ok, seems stable for now, seems to be a few hundred away from the closed scouted point, but that is a fair bit to the side, so it may be a lot closer if I just claim down-hill.


    The water was a bit further down than I had hoped, at about two hundred and fifty spaces.


    Fortunately, it gets a lot less steep once I am in the water. It takes another hundred spaces before I get to what seems to be the bottom of the lake. Judging by the locations of my scouting points, I may only be about a third of the way across, but I think the other side was also less steep. Now, how deep do I want my shark-guarded new core-room to be? The water is only about fifteen floors deep, so I¡¯ll want another fifty or more just to have room to grow without my gathering aura breaking the surface.


    I still have over nine hundred mana left for the day, so a hundred floors down is not unreasonable, perhaps with a hidden side passage every thirty-ish floors to make a series of H shapes to discourage and confuse invaders?


    Looks good, it feels like I need to cover the passage with water mana if I want the empty hatch on the core level to keep out the water, but that is extra cheap using water mana on an area already filled with water.


    Dig out and populate a standard core room, move the secondary core into place so I do not lose control of my current main core room.


    Now it is time to move my main core into its new home and spawn a giant ice eagle scout on the peak to keep watch for anyone approaching my lake.


    [Upgrade Complete, New Defender: Raptors]


    The spawn is pretty expensive, probably because it is flying, icy, and giant. It also looks like I can only fit one spawn per nest, so I probably want another nest on the other side of the peak so they can patrol in all four directions. Yea, patrol, these are not scouts even if I gave them the scouting option, these are front-line defenders. The doves can spot larger groups from further away, but the eagles will be keeping an eye out for individuals or small groups that the doves might have missed, then dive in and take them out. Even if they track the eagles back to the mountain top, that is still miles away from the lake they are defending. Speaking of the lake, at some point I will need to claim the entire shore to detect anyone approaching. Only after that can I start on trying to claim the entire lake area.


    But before I get to that, I need to expand the grove at Trap 1 to make sure there is enough fruit to make sure the core killers come and try to capture it.


    Hmm, with my daily mana hundreds below my max mana, I should probably throw down a bunch of grass. Fill up that claimed area in the place I started, then square off Expansion 1 and throw a bunch of grass there too.


    That is over two hundred mana just on grass, so that should help.


    Before I put that last dozen mana on grassing that trail down to the lake, I want to instruct my ne defender to patrol the vicinity of my lake and kill any threat less than ten miles from the lake shore.


    Now for the data access¡­ I still need to learn about that ruminate group.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The invader with the axe is back. It seems confused and alarmed that the plantings it cut down were back, plus the on-cut plants got a lot bigger and another set got planted right next to them.


    It starts at the wall again and starts cutting down my trees again. I am glad these grow back on their own or that would get annoying.


    It manages to cut down those same fifteen it cut before, but this time it seemed to start melting as it cut at the last few trees.


    I guess that is further evidence for wide spread vampirism in this area, as I do not remember the invader guards melting, even though they made it a point to stand in the sun as much as they could, while this one tried to stay in the shadow of whichever tree it was cutting.


    To make sure I did not have bits of invader littering my trap, I made sure to remove everything that dripped off of it as soon as it touched the ground.


    I would not want little invaders to spawn out of such remnants after all.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Oh, the tree-cutter is back, and this time with help. It seems that the help is because the tree cutter cannot move the grown trees by itself after they are down, so it cuts the tree down, the other one starts cutting off branches, then they both move the trunk and branches out of my area. Even working together, they cannot manage nearly as many, only getting the next row of five trees done before they leave.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 99.9729%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    A wolf that was approaching the lake was killed. Patrol parameters adjusted to exclude local fauna unless actively attempting to reach the core or wearing the designated emblem.


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    A caravan was spotted east of Hazard 1, heading away from the dungeon.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of twenty doves, twelve bats, twelve coyotes, four ice doves, one Giant Ice Eagle.


    Twenty doves, ten bats, twelve coyotes, four ice doves and one giant ice eagle returned..


    There was one invader killed and no resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    From the plentiful goat to the nearly mythical Mammoth, the group of ruminants and other large herbivorous mammals provides an assortment of seemingly inoffensive ground animals for nearly any environment. Some of them can also provide an impressive amount of force against passive defenses such as walls and stone buildings when in large groups.


    Goats are prevalent anywhere with uneven terrain, Horses are popular beasts of burden among tool users, and sheep are frequently domesticated for their wool. While elephants are impressive in warm climates, Mammoths can be a force of nature in the cold.


    All animals in this group require advanced spawning.


    Some Rhinos, Some Elephants, Horses, Bison, zebras and Giraffes can spawn from grass.


    Deer, Some Rhino, Some Elephants, and some Hippos can spawn from trees


    Hippos require shallow water and water weeds


    Mammoths require icy grass


    Whales require deep water


    [...]

 Defending the lake

    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 34</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Lake 1 surface


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center" rowspan="2">


    Lake 1 maze


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Trap 1 surface


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Start surface


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Expansion 2 surface


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"> </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">status Day 34, Mana:1615/2154, Water: 179/2154, Ice: 74/2154 Size: 4308, core 27,


    Twenty Four upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I did not expect the eagle to go after the little stuff, and I did not realize there would be animals around large rough for it to bother with. On the plus side, it seems like there are some wolves around to help keep any invaders on their toes. It might be worthwhile to add a den with a pack of wolves near the lake at some point, but for now there are more pressing issues.


    If the tree cutters are going to keep cutting down my trees, I am going to need at least one more set.


    I also want to add a second nest for another giant ice eagle spawn, giving me a total of four, one for each direction.


    After that, I really need to claim a perimeter around the lake so I can detect anyone approaching. I could start claiming the bottom of the lake, but I am spotting lots of fish moving around with no real concern with how close they are to the floor of the lake without the distinctively large wings on birds. Presumably invaders could exhibit similar freedom once they are in the water, so I¡¯ll need to set up the initial perimeter outside the water.


    This lake shore is incredibly annoying. I was prepared for the vagaries of a circle, or possibly even multiple curves. This is nothing like that. It is almost like every length of shore is trying to out detail the previous one. What is worse, is the smaller the details I examine as far as the interface between the water and the land the more details there are to find. Why is so much of the world so unordered? Where are the squares and rectangles? Does nothing adhere to a proper grid? This is most distressing. I wonder if I should try to smooth out the shore? It is certainly tempting, but big changes like that, aside from being very expensive, would be a clear sign to anyone who has been to the area before that something is different. And if other lakes are similarly messy with their shores, then it could be a gigantic ¡®here I am¡¯ flag to the dungeon killers. I do not like it, but much like the rocks and sand scattered about my trp observation locations, it is a matter of stealth, and thus survival to leave this awful and annoyingly irregular shore as it is. At least it gives me plenty of area to plant grass. Ok, I was able to claim and plant just over eight hundred and fifty spaces of shire. It seems to be somewhere between one third and one quarter of the total length of shore, but that is almost thirteen hundred mana invested in this. At least it will be a large boost to my mana generation, increasing it by more than half thanks to all that grass being outside.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The tree cutter has returned, but instead of spending the early hours cutting down the youngest trees, it examines the newly grown fruits and takes one away.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The tree cutter has returned with several companions, some of them with very fancy patterns and frills. The fancy invaders direct the others to collect the fruit, then leave the tree cutter and their assistant with my trees. I do not see the axe and the tree cutter does not try to cut down any more trees, so they seem to have caught on that the fruit are something to collect, not just the wood.


    The former tree cutters go away once it gets dark.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    Roughly a mile south east of Lake 1 there is a valley with a high density of plants and a number of artificial structures. As the area between Lake 1 and the valley consists primarily of a large incline covered in rocks with little or no cover, this approach bears watching but is not expected to be a significant point of approach. This valley continues east for a mile and a half before joining a mostly north-south valley with similar qualities. This north-south valley passes roughly two miles from Lake 1 with the closest approach being east-north-east from Lake 1


    There is a low ridge between Lake 1 and the valley to the south east, but multiple higher ridges between Lake 1 and any other detected artificial structures. This includes another green valley two and a half miles southwest of Lake 1 that joins up with the north-south valley four and a half miles southeast of Lake 1.


    The large water to the west of Mountain 1 is roughly one hundred miles away to the south west, west, and north west and it is at least one hundred and fifty miles wide. The water continues to the north where it is one hundred and fifty miles away and at least one hundred miles wide. The mountain range continues to the north east and to the east-north-east for at least two hundred and fifty miles.


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of twenty doves, twelve bats, twelve coyotes, four ice doves, and Three Giant Ice Eagles.


    Twenty doves, ten bats, twelve coyotes, four ice doves and three giant ice eagles returned.


    There were no kills and no resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    While the natural base shapes of a dungeon are the five foot square and the six foot floor, naturally occurring shapes are much less regular, usually tending towards fractal. Due to this disparity between natural and dungeon shapes, most potential invaders can easily distinguish between dungeon and non-dungeon structures.


    Debris are also a common distinguishing mark between dungeon and natural structures, as dungeons will reflexively keep their surfaces clean and even, while naturally occurring surfaces are almost never clean or even.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 35</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Trap 1 surface


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Mountain 1 surface


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">Lake report: 858 spaces of shore claimed and planted with grass, at least ? remains unclaimed.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Status Day 35, Mana: 2633*/2633, Water: 244/2633, Ice: 105/2633 Size: 5266,


    Twenty Eight upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Oh, I guess that changes things. If the square is not the base element of non-dungeon structures, I will need to avoid it for anything that should be obfuscated. The trap is fine as a square as it is supposed to be obviously part of a dungeon, but I will need to be careful about that sort of thing around lake 1, and possibly mountain 1 as well, as it is a big part of my scouting and defenses.


    As far as scouting goes, those ice eagles seem to be much more effective than the doves. Is it because they fly so much higher? I suppose that makes sense, as I need towers to target places that are further away, so if something flies higher it should also be able to target things further away.


    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    Birds must have an immense mana pool, or perhaps they have very high mana regeneration, otherwise they would quickly run out just from making temporary claims fast enough to make sure they do not run into things. Then again, I cannot seem to make temporary claims on water, so how could the eagles verify that it is still water all the way past the end of their detection range?


    Presumably they have some sort of innate skill or talent with the ability that allows them to detect a broader range of materials and at a longer range than I can manage with my rudimentary fumbling about. I¡¯ll need to study their mana emissions while they are within my domain, especially when they come in to land, so I can better understand, and perhaps even emulate their improved version of my detection-by-remote-claiming.


    Speaking of mana pools, it seems that there are enough invaders visiting my claimed area around the water of Lake 1 to push me over the cap. If I add together all of my mana generation, I should be nearly fifty mana below my cap, but as my other watering holes generate around five to ten mana depending on their size and accessibility, I should not be surprised that a new watering hole shore area more than fifty times the size of the mid-sized ones would give more than twice as much as the mid-sized watering holes. I have that ¡®over-mana¡¯ flag though, I did not realize I could still get that. I wonder how much I can go over my max? I¡¯ll check when I build my defenses.


    Speaking of defenses, I think it is time for some sharks, no, not just sharks, but giant sharks. I have the water for them now after all, and they will be my last line of defenders, at least for now.


    So start by claiming a five-by-five near the entrance, then claim up, say four floors worth. When I poke at the idea, a five-by-two-by-two should give me a good spawning area. Now use the area to spawn a giant shark. Giant spear-tooth shark? Sounds like it should have a nice bite attack. What is that? It only takes half of the spawning area? Well, another forty two mana and now I have two giant shark spawners in my defensive lake. Added to the giant ice eagles, and that feels like some defense in depth.


    Of course I also have all those maze-like tunnels. Those seem like they would welcome a bunch of smaller defenders if I can determine what might be effective.


    Perhaps I will focus on that for today''s topic.


    Hmm, looks like I was twenty seven over my listed mana cap. That is the same ass my core level, so perhaps mana produced by my core can ignore the cap? Makes sense, as it was doing that when I was small.


    So, I need to increase my size in addition to claiming the perimeter of Lake 1. Well, since they noticed the fruit, I need to establish Trap 1 West and extend out the area I can use to put Follow Invader on one of the core killers as they approach the tree harvesters.


    First I need to wake up one of my doves from Trap 1 North and send it to find a carriable invader to use to mark a suitable place for Trap 1 West.


    I think I can allocate about three hundred mana for each of the trap observation areas, plus another three hundred or so to establish the new one, then I have enough to claim and plant another six hundred spaces of shore surrounding Lake 1.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The tree cutters are back again, no axes, but they do have scimitars, so I guess they are invader-defenders now.


    They are followed shortly by some harvesters with a cart, and they seem very happy with getting more than twice as many fruits as yesterday.


    Looks like the dove did not find a suitable rock, so I¡¯ll need to build my own like I did with Trap 1 South, but that should wait until after dark, as it would be counterproductive to place a new hidden core when there are potential invaders around to notice it.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 99.9729%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    No new hazards were identified in the vicinity of the dungeon.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of twenty doves, twelve bats, twelve coyotes, four ice doves, and four Giant Ice Eagles.


    Twenty doves, ten bats, twelve coyotes, four ice doves and four giant ice eagles returned.


    There were no kills and no resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Snakes can be a surprisingly low-cost and effective defender, especially if you can force invaders into a tight situation where they cannot move freely. While snakes cannot generally penetrate armor, small venomous snakes can often climb inside of an invaders armor to find a place where their bite can penetrate, and larger constricting snakes can immobilize any but the strongest of warriors, even if this places it in a position to be quickly dispatched by any companions that warrior might have. A variety of venomous snakes, restricted passages that require invaders to crawl or assume awkward positions, and a large constrictor to immobilize the first invader to make it past the crawlway can be challenging for even the strongest of invaders if done right.


    Many snakes are colored to blend in to their surroundings, so be sure to select types that will match your dungeon.


    Many water snakes are still able to travel short distances on land, but they will also require occasional access to air.


    Eels are less adaptable to non-aquatic environments, but they are the best choice for serpentine defenders that will be restricted to a purely aquatic environment.


    Snakes and eels are generally spawned from nests, but be sure to upgrade the venom for any snakes that are expected to take out an invader in a timely fashion, as most natural toxins will take hours or days to kill larger invaders.


    Like other vermin, snakes can be summoned either individually or as a swarm.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 36</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center" rowspan="2">


    Lake 1 maze


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Trap 1 North and Trap 1 South Surface


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Trap 1 East and Trap 1 West Surface


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center" colspan="2">Lake report: 1464 spaces of shore claimed and planted with grass, roughly ? remains unclaimed.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Status Day 36, Mana: 3290/4246, Water: 388/4246, Ice: 135/4246 Size: 8493,


    Thirty Eight upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    As it has now been nearly a full day since the first fruit were harvested, I need my eagles to be on alert for anything core-killer marked within their range. I cannot really track them down if I do not know where they come from, and since Trap 1 seems to be even more isolated from other spawn areas than Mountain 1, Follow Invader may not give me as much information about their origins as an early sighting by the eagles could.


    On that vein, I will also wait to expand my grassy shore around Lake 1 until after the invader-defenders leave, keeping that mana in reserve. Speaking of reserves, I ended up spending more than my max mana yesterday. Do I finally have enough water-drinkers to get hourly mana?


    I will want to keep an eye on that while I am waiting.


    In the meantime, a bunch of highly venomous swarms of water snakes sounds like a highly effective way to guard my water tunnels. Hmm, looks like the swarm needs a double-sized nest, so dig out a nook on one of the dead-ends, fill it with ice and water, then place both parts of the nest, and see what we can do with those swarms.


    Oh, right, need to get snakes first.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Defender: Snakes</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Hmm, seems a little expensive for such a small defender, then add in extra toxic and swarm, and a spawn costs eighteen mana. Oh, ice aspected as well, that makes sense for the higher cost. Seems like each pair of nests can have three spawns, I guess snake swarms being group instead of solitary creatures makes sense. I have six dead-ends plus the passage that leads to the core room. That should probably have a secret door hiding it. That gives me seven apparent dead-ends, so just over four hundred mana for the upgraded defenses, giving me just over fourty swarms of toxic ice snakes patrolling the narrow, sea-grass choked passages filled with icy-slush-water between the lake floor and my core.


    How nice, it looks like the ice snakes also count as camouflaged when not moving. Presumably invaders would have difficulty differentiating the semi-crystalline snakes from the bits of ice in the water.


    If I reserve enough mana to double my number of claimed shore spaces around Lake 1, that leaves me with about six hundred mana for expanding my detection area, letting me make each of those detection wings roughly half again as long as they are now.


    Wait, I still have three empty dove nests in the observation areas around Trap 1, I really should populate those and set them to be on the look-out for the core-killer symbol.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Invader-defenders are back for the day.


    The harvesters needed to come back with the cart for a second load, but otherwise not much different from yesterday.


    There they go, and no sign of the core killers yet. Nearly two days since the first fruit harvest. What if the harvesters in this place try to keep the fruit a secret? Would the core-killers even know what is happening here?


    This anticipation is really affecting me, I need to calm down and remember that every day they delay, I get stronger and will have a better chance to track them back to their lair.


    Speaking of which, it looks like I gained almost fifty mana during the day, so I am very clearly getting hourly mana generation for much of the day.


    Looks like I have enough mana to claim and plant over fifteen hundred shore spaces, hopefully that will be enough to finish the shore-ring.


    Nope, not quite. Almost there though.

 Ready, Set, What!?

    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.5926%; text-align: center">Day 37</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 48.653%; text-align: center" rowspan="2">


    Lake 1 Maze


    </td>


    <td style="width: 48.653%; text-align: center">


    Trap 1 North/South


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 48.653%; text-align: center">


    Trap 1 East/West


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 48.653%; text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Lake report: 2972 spaces of shore claimed and planted with grass, should be less than fifty unclaimed spaces before finishing.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%">status Day 37, Mana: 5003*/5003, Water: 532/5003, Ice: 245/5003 Size: 10,007,


    core 28, Forty one upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Oh, looks like I put too much into mana production and hit my cap again. As I am not getting hourly mana, it would be wasteful not to use some of that right away.


    Looks like about forty mana is enough to finish the grassy shore-ring on the lake, then perhaps a couple hundred mana on expanding the paths extending from the spawning structures around Trap 1, for a nice even five hundred spaces one either side of the central area. I think that takes the detection area about a mile wide on each side of the spawn-point, unfortunately, as the box is about five miles on each side, that means only the central fifth of each side is ready to track any intruders. To fully close the box should take another eight or nine thousand mana. Feels odd to be not only considering those sorts of numbers, but also being able to produce that much mana in just a couple days.


    But for now I should have enough space in my mana pool to keep me from wasting any mana before the invader-defenders leave before the end of the day.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Invader-defenders are back for the day.


    The harvesters only have one cart, so probably two trips again.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(132, 63, 161, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Scouting Alert</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    A group of invaders has been detected with multiple instances of the Core-Killer symbol on display. The location and direction of travel suggests that the point of origin is a set of structures roughly one hundred miles south of Mountain 1 and roughly sixty miles north west of Trap 1. Based on their rate of travel, it will likely take them between ten and fifteen hours to get close enough to Trap 1 to be tracked.


    Ok, now we know where they are coming from, and I can extend those paths until they meet, meaning that the core killers will need to take a detour to avoid being tracked. Hopefully they will arrive fast enough for that to be useful.


    What if they do not?


    If they do not look like they will arrive in time by the time the invader defenders leave for the day, I can try establishing an outpost close enough to that other cluster of structures to put tracking on them when they pass by on the way back to where they came from.


    I will want another scouting alert if they change speed or direction, or if they are getting ready to cross my trap perimeter.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(132, 63, 161, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Scouting Alert</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Core-killer party has stopped and set up a cloth shelter where most of the tool-users are hiding from the sun while the other tool-users do something with the beasts of burden that were carrying them.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(132, 63, 161, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Scouting Alert</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Core-killer party has resumed travel towards Trap 1. Estimated arrival time is now an hour after invader-defender departure time.


    If they stop at the same time as the invader-defender, then they may not reach my trap perimeter. I had better dispatch one of my scouts to land at a location that the core-killers traveled over that is both close to the structures where they spawned, as well as targetable from Mountain 1. Sixty miles is a lot of hops, and I would not want to place an exposed sub-core near them if I can avoid it.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(132, 63, 161, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Scouting Alert</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Core-killer party has stopped and set up multiple cloth shelters. Beasts of burden have had equipment removed and a fire was spotted in the vicinity of the cloth structures. Scout had to return.


    It is unfortunate that they did not reach my perimeter, but I should have plenty of mana to set up Trap 2 near their spawn point. It may even serve as a good point to use for deploying Retaliation 1.


    Well, as the invader-defender is going away, I can probably deploy Trap 2 without too much notice.


    Nice, the scout landed on a large rock, so I can make a rat-tunnel under the rock as the entrance.


    No need to let the core-killers find this sub-core, so I can make it thirty deep like the trap-perimeter cores. Expand out the wings on the side to make it easier to tag the core killers on their way back, and now I have spent most of my mana on expanding new territory.


    Yea, I now have more than half again as much area as I had before, so the rest of my mana should go towards expanding mana generation.


    I am tempted to start claiming the lake, but any grass planted there will produce water mana, so the next best option for increasing my mana generation by over a thousand would be to put a second layer of grass around the first layer of grass around the lake.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%">


    The group designated Core killers was tracked from sixty three miles North West of Trap 1 to ten miles North West of trap 1, the route followed suggests that they either pass close to Trap 1 or enter Trap 1. The group is likely to pass through the fringes of Trap 1 Northwest to approach Trap 1. This group of invaders seems to consist of fifteen quadrupeds ridden by twelve bipeds, three of which are covered with metal armor.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%">


    The scouting party consisted of twenty doves, twelve bats, twelve coyotes, four ice doves, and four Giant Ice Eagles.


    Twenty doves, ten bats, twelve coyotes, four ice doves and four giant ice eagles returned.


    There were no kills and no resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Day 38</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.0382%; text-align: center" colspan="2" rowspan="2">Trap 1Northwest</td>


    </tr>


    <tr></tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.0382%; text-align: center">


    Trap 1 South, Trap 2


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.0382%; text-align: center">


    Trap 1 East


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.0382%; text-align: center">


    Trap 2


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.0382%; text-align: center">


    Trap 2


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.0382%; text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Lake report:


    100% of shore claimed to one space and planted with grass. 46% of shore claimed out to 2 spaces and planted with grass. 4244 total spaces.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%">status Day 38, Mana: 6250/9143, Water: 680/9143, Ice: 359/9143 Size: 18,286,


    Fifty Eight upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Ok, that is pretty ridiculous, there is no good reason to keep a reserve of more than twice as many upgrades as my total core level. Especially when it looks like I can spot intruders from multiple days away, giving me plenty of time to move my main core if it looks threatened.


    I will want to keep at least a thousand mana in reserve to deal with whatever the core killers decide to do, but there were several upgrades I considered to be good candidates in the past that I have not yet gotten, such as Fire, Lava, Acid, and whatever other sorts of environments or non-tool using defender types I might not have yet.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Environment: Fire</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Environment: Lava</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Environment: Acid</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Environment: Poison</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That sounds good!


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Environment: Mud</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I guess that can be used to slow people down.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Environment: Steam</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Not quite sure what to do with that one.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Environment: Smoke</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Ok I think I will need a better idea on what is available before I get any new environments, as those last two do not feel particularly useful, so let¡¯s get some new defender types.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Defender: Felinoids</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Hmm, those feel sort of like larger, more solitary versions of the canids, but the different attack modes might prove useful.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Defender: Reptiles</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Those feel very different. More poison and other special abilities, like changing colors.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Defender: Amphibians</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    A class of defenders that can live both on land and in the water? That feels like we might be getting down to very niche options again, so that is probably enough for now.


    So, about a third of my mana for ten upgrades. Not bad.


    I should have enough let to finish the second layer of the shore grass without dipping below a thousand, but I think I will hold off for now. I have plenty of space in my pool for hourly generation, and hopefully the core killers are not ready for a dungeon that has thousands of mana available to deal with them, should they not follow my script.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    There they are, I used Follow Invader on both the first invader and their mount, but it is not very useful, only giving me a better idea of where they left their spawn point. About as expected, as it had been more than a day since they left there. I did manage to verify that they crossed the area now covered by Trap 2, but that is the only useful information thus far. I tried again on the second invader, just in case, but this one threw a hand up into the air, yelling something, and their mount stopped before fully leaving my area. A moment later I lost my sense of them and their location. It seems that some of them can detect and remove such things. A few moments later, my awareness of the first invader also faded. It seems that if I put tracking on the wrong invader, they can notice and cleanse it from all of them. They do not seem to have noticed that the mount was also hit with the ability, and that I can still feel where it is, so their detection ability is clearly limited.


    The first invader was not wearing metal or carrying a staff, but the second one was carrying a staff, so presumably the staff-holders can detect the Follow ability, but the ones without either can not. Unfortunately, the ability just sort of splashed off of the other riding invaders that I tried it on, so the staff holder might be protecting all of them in some way. Fortunately, they seem to have neglected the mounts, and I was able to use the ability on several of them before it became clear that I was not getting anything else of use from doing so.


    On the plus side, following the mounts let me predict when they were done in the walled spawn area and were heading towards Trap 1. They took a lot longer than expected, actually, with the mounts all standing around in a group without their riders on them for an extended period. Eventually the mounts have riders again and are heading towards Trap 1. When they arrive, I discover that they are being led by the two tree-cutters who seem to be explaining something about the trees. Possibly how they appeared in groups of fifty and come back the next day if cut down. The Core killers spend a little time wandering around the trees, but they quickly zero in on the mana gathering field covering a sizable chunk of the first group of trees, finally locating the center of the field just a couple areas away from the wall.


    With a quick search, they find the hidden entrance and stare at the water for several moments before the shortest member of their group is sent to the mounts to fetch something.


    When they get back one of the staff-wielders hands the short invader a glowing rock, stands over them for several minutes doing something with mana and their staff.


    Finally, preparations complete, the short invader sticks their head in the hole for a few moments before pulling it back out of the water, saying something, and going all the way into the water.


    While all of the invaders are focused on the short one, I try using Follow Invader on one of the metal wearing ones. It takes them longer than it took the staff-holder, but they eventually go talk to one of the staff-holders and have the ability removed. I guess that shows the metal wearing ones as bad targets for the ability as well.


    Curious, I use the ability on the one in the water-tunnel, and they do not seem to react. They do reverse direction once they are almost half way down.


    Once the short, wet invader gats back to the surface, they talk to the same staff-holder that stood over them to cast the first spell, and has them cast a different spell, or perhaps the same spell a different way? Either way, it seems different while it is being cast, and I have no idea what either one does.


    The second time, the wet invader gets down to the icy slush before pulling back. They drop their glowing rock and watch it fall to the bottom, then start the slow process of going back up.


    If I were to guess, it looks like both the depth and the ice are significant impediments for the invaders. Combined with the small tunnels which seem effective at keeping out the extra-large metal armored ones, and it looks like my watery passages are an effective hindrance to the core killers.


    At least as far as they go, as a short time later, the irritated seeming staff holder steps over to the space between the trees directly over the core, looks at the trees on all sides, grumbles something, and moves to the open area between the entrance and the core before they start casting again.


    This time it becomes fairly apparent what the spell is doing, as the dirt starts pulling itself out of the ground and piling up under the near-by trees.


    After the first couple floors, the dirt needs to get pushed further and further away from the hole to keep from falling back in.


    By the fifth floor, the staff-holder is more of a held-up-by staff, and in the middle of the seventh floor, they stop, stumbling away from the hole and the dirt to go sit under one of the trees.


    Then one of the other staff holders takes their place and continues digging the hole with magic.


    Once they get a small opening to the area behind the water, the send down the small invader with a fresh glowing rock and they go down, doing something with their rock to conceal it from the light coming from the rock it dropped earlier? In either case they easily spot the core and call up to the others before rejoining them.


    Some time later, when the staff-holders no longer seem quite so unsteady, they drop rope ladders down the hole that they dug and go to investigate the trap core.


    They have a box with them, but it seems more like the larger enslavement-gadget box as opposed to the smaller and heavier core-killing-hammer box.


    As they have limited room to deal with the core without being in the blast radius, I am willing to let several of them gather at the bottom of their hole. When the staff-holders enter, one of them sticks their hand through the doorway holding back the icy-slush that made the small one turn around before shivering and shaking their hand.


    A good sign that none of them like the slush!


    Once one of the metal-clad individuals and the box carrier join the staff holders near the core, one of the staff holders gestures towards the core with no apparent effect before the box holder opens up the box and pulls out one of those core enslavement devices.


    Seems like a good time to trigger the trap.


    The rocks fall, but they just bounce off of some sort of barrier between the trap and the core.


    This is not good!


    I cannot seem to find any other means of destroying the core. The invaders are occupying the space adjacent to the core, preventing the summoning of any defenders close enough to trigger it, and right as I am about to purchase another upgrade to give me a trap that can hit a target from the sides or bottom, the other staff-holder gestures at the core and it changes color.


    I can feel that the trap-core ability has been removed, how can I destroy it now?


    I try to restore the Core Trap, but it seems to be blocked somehow, leaving me helpless as I watch them affix the device to my sub-core.


    With a tearing sensation, I lose all awareness of Trap 1 aside from the short invader that I was still tracking.


    I need back-up options, and ¡®trying to catch them in the blast¡¯ is no longer viable. I need a wide scout network and to stand ready to abandon any core that gets approached, before they get close enough to stop me!


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New trap type: Small Projectiles</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New trap type: Moving Spikes</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Ok, that helps, now I can have multiple dart or arrow traps pointing at my cores, in addition to a spike trap that will just stab the core with a spike from the side or bottom.


    I still refuse to let invaders approach my cores, but now I have backup options as well.


    The core killers spend a lot of time separate from their mounts, with the small one spending a lot of time slouched in a chair.


    It seems to have gotten to the time of day when the invader-defenders would have gone away, so it looks like the core-killers will not be heading back to their spawn point today.


    That is fine, I need to replace a hundred and fifty mana generation anyway. I think I also lost some mana from my pool, but not a lot.


    It takes a little more than half my remaining mana to claim and grass the lake shore out to two spaces. Then,to be as ready to deal with these people as possible, I manage nearly half of the third ring as well.


    Just to reassure myself, I double-check that the lake is still fifteen floors deep, patrolled by four giant sharks, then there are another hundred floors of narrow icy mazes to traverse, filled with swaying icy-sea-weeds hiding hundreds of small, almost invisible, but highly toxic icy sea-snakes. It helps a little, but I am still very leery of the ability of the core killers to deal with or avoid my precautions.


    I think I need more sharks.


    Hmm, I think I can even afford more sharks. At least if I place the spawners right under the other spawners in the pre-claimed space. I have generated over a hundred hourly mana today after all.


    That puts me at six giant sharks in the lake today, with another two to spawn tomorrow, each one big enough to bite one of those Core killers in half with a single bite attack.


    Ok, that feels a little bit more secure, for now.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%">


    The group designated Core killers was tracked from ten miles NorthWest of trap 1 to the vicinity of Trap 1. Trap 1 was lost but the group was not spotted leaving the area.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 98.9948%">


    The scouting party consisted of twenty doves, twelve bats, twelve coyotes, four ice doves, and four Giant Ice Eagles.


    Twenty doves, ten bats, twelve coyotes, four ice doves and four giant ice eagles returned.


    There were no kills and no resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 Following them home

    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.0921%; text-align: center">Day 39</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.0921%">


    Lake report:


    100% of shore claimed to two spaces and planted with grass. 48% of shore claimed out to three spaces and planted with grass. 6870 total spaces.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.0921%">status Day 39, Mana: 8804/10,291, Water: 828/10,291, Ice: 473/10,291 Size: 20,583, core 40,


    Fifty upgrades available</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I can¡¯t say I am happy about them seizing my trap core, but realistically, I was expecting to sacrifice it. While I am confident I could plant another core near it and take back control, it would be a bad idea to do so with the core killers so close. Also, would there be any purpose in doing so? Sure it was producing over a hundred and sixty mana, but just yesterday I increased my mana generation by nearly ten times that amount. It would probably be more mana-efficient to plant more grass instead.


    I will want to keep an eye out for potential encroachment, but realistically, those couple miles are practically unpassable for most dungeons. Also, the core killers know about that location, so unless I have a good reason, I do not want to try to reclaim it. If they manage to capture Mountain 1, that would be a different matter, but then again, Mountain 1 has great strategic importance, and only produces about forty mana. Speaking of which, I wonder if it would be worthwhile to claim more territory either there or on a neighboring peak for more giant ice eagles. They make great scouts, and I have no doubt that they would make decent defenders as well.


    Actually, I have an opportunity, why not have one eagle keep a distant eye on the core killers while another one tries to kill one of the staff-holders. That might be tipping my hand a bit, but I will want to be able to remove the ability to bypass my ice-water tunnels should they approach any of my other cores.


    So let¡¯s try that, and if it works, I¡¯ll order other scouts to land on some mountain tops that would be suitable for giant ice eagle nests.


    Speaking of giant ice eagles, I have been watching as they land during the second color-shift of the day, and there is no real mana reaction until they enter my territory, and even then it is all but identical to any other fast-moving ice creature.


    If they are not sending out some sort of mana to detect the ground and other obstacles how do they avoid collisions, especially when moving at speed?


    My own passive mana-sensor only extends a short way beyond my dungeon, perhaps as much as several inches?


    I cannot imagine that the eagles can sense things hundreds of miles away using this technique.


    Is it possible that they possess some sort of extra-mana perception? Something that allows sensing remote details without the use of mana?


    It seems preposterous, but until I can find some other explanation, this mysterious EMP is my best guess for how eagles can scout as well as they do. This might well apply to my doves and possibly other scout units as well.


    Perhaps that ability is what is purchased with the scout upgrade? I hope so. I would have no idea how to deal with widespread EMP abilities.


    Well, with a few hundred mana below my max, I have plenty of buffer to wait for the first color change of the day when the birds can start their scouting duties. Hmm, on that kill-attempt, I think waiting until they are well clear of the spawn area and perhaps approaching my perimeter would be a good time for it.


    That way the structures would not interfere, and I would not yet be tracking whichever one it hits.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%; background-color: rgba(230, 126, 35, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting alert</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">


    Invaders designated as core killers located approaching Trap Northwest, beginning stoop.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Attack Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">


    The designated invader was successfully snatched, but started to struggle while being carried. Invaders successfully forced attacker to drop the target, but the attacker managed to freeze the invader with a breath attack before their grip was completely lost. The invader shattered when it hit the ground, but the other invaders continued to target the attacker as it retreated. Attacker has successfully returned to the nest but it will be several hours before it is fully healed.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Well, that is good to know: an eagle can indeed take out one of the staff invaders, but probably not more than a couple per day per eagle.


    No need to harry them further for the moment though, as I still want to see if I can follow them back to their nest¡­


    Should I have directed the attacker to land on a different mountain to misdirect the core killers should they try to follow it?


    I can do that next time.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Ah, they seem to be progressing again. Looks like they collected the thawing pieces of the staff-holder. Let''s tag several of their mounts, including the one holding the melting former staff holder.


    I wonder what that was for? One of the staff holders shot something large and fiery along my territory in both directions. One went straight for nearly half a mile before fading out, and the other turned the corner where the north and west sections joined somewhere in the last third of its flight. They seemed very concerned about this. Possibly not expecting a dungeon to have territory so far from its closest core?


    In any case the other staff-holder was the last to leave my territory, but not before waving its staff at the ground and causing the earth and rocks there to shift and quake. I wonder what that was about? Perhaps it thought my core was underground there and it wanted to disrupt my dungeon?


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%; background-color: rgba(230, 126, 35, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Alert</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Core killers group is moving towards Trap 2 and should arrive in about 7 hours if they continue at this pace.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That would be nice, let me refresh my tracking and perhaps find where in that spawn area they have their nest so I can find a way to destroy it and stop them from harassing me.


    The doves have returned after visiting near-by peaks. Looks like they are in the corner-directions about three to five miles away, so that is a pretty good range. Huh, one of them is near the shore for Lake 1, about five hundred floors up and about a thousand spaces southwest. When I place that one, I should check if it can target the shores of Lake 1 directly, in case that becomes useful at some point.


    Whale the Core Killers are heading towards Trap 2, I should go back and check on that tilting issue. I think I can use the water-levels around the shore of Lake 1 as a true-level for the area, and then compare that to my walls and floors to see how off they are.


    How odd, the crooked parts of Mountain 1 and Lake 1 that I was worried about are now pretty much level. Lake 1 more than Mountain 1, but I suppose that makes sense, but now all of those other core rooms feel crooked. Surprisingly, the surface of the ponds for Origin, and the two expansions are exactly as crooked as the floors. What is more, from Trap 1W to Hazard 1A they all have roughly the same amount of north-south tilt, while the east-west portion of the tilt gets worse the further east they get from my core.


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    If I look closely, I can even see a small amount of tilt for Mountain 1. So a distance-based tilt that gets bigger the farther away something is, but the east-west portions are magnified compared to the north-south portions? Yes, Trap 1N and Trap 1S are closer in slope than Trap 1W and Trap 1E.


    What is more, water surfaces agree with this tilt. This suggests that it is not as much a ¡®Me¡¯ thing as it is a ¡®World¡¯ thing. Or, perhaps a thing where the world and I do not fully agree on something.


    This suggests that the world is ¡®uneven¡¯ in a consistent and recurring fashion on a scale that dungeons are not normally required to deal with. But my architectural sense is able to deal with this unevenness and so I should trust my sense of what is stable and secure over my sense of what is flat and level.


    I suppose that is a good thing, as I do not know how to develop a conscious assessment of what is stable and secure apart from my structural sense. For now I¡¯ll just need to accept that ¡®the world is wonky to my sensibilities¡¯ and not fret too much about the details that it affects.


    Ok, since that has been worked-through as well as I can manage, and the Core Killers are barely halfway to Trap 2, let¡¯s assess what we discovered about our defenses from the assault on Trap 1.


    Core Killers can handle water, with some difficulty, but deeper water, ice water, or both make things harder on them. To the point that they will just give up and dig for a depth of twelve floors. What if they are too far away to detect the location of the core though? Is digging even an option at that point? For the traps and the mountain areas, they have perhaps a one-in-four chance of digging in the correct direction to find anything more than the edge of the collection field. Although I suppose that should be enough to let them find that core.


    I wonder if it is easier or harder for them to dig through stone? Stone is much more structurally sound, so it would make sense that there is a trade-off in not being as strong defensively. Until I know for sure, I may want to make anything buried in stone extra-deep if I can. Fortunately, Mountain 1 is already extra-deep just to keep the collection field under the surface. I should make the defender mountain areas similarly deep.


    How about the eagle returning to the nest, if they track that back to Mountain 1, or one of the Defender Mountains, I will want to make sure it is easy to reclaim once they leave.


    I will also want to minimize obvious defenders around Lake 1. Probably some wolves and bears if I can find some natural out-crops in the steeper parts around the shore, so I do not accidentally make the Dens look unnatural.


    As far as reclaiming any of the Eagle Roosts that get captured, what if I plant enough elemental grass to put each area into zero or negative normal mana production?


    Fire grass would probably make this even more effective as fire areas are supposed to take active up-keep costs in most places, and if I put fire-grass around thee eagle nests on the cold mountain tops, I should be able to zero out all of the local mana generation, not just the normal mana generation like I can for the ice and water sections.


    That seems like a good plan, I will surround the defender mountain tops with a fire region sustained by fire grass. Except grass on the surface does not need maintenance. I do not know if fire alone will be as effective a deterrent as the combination of ice and water for the maze area, but perhaps lava would work? That is a combination of earth and fire. So lava tubes down to the core instead of ice tubes, supported by lava grass in the tube and on the surface combined with fire grass on the surface to support Giant Fire Eagles.


    Having both fire and ice eagles may prove to be a good idea, as the Core Killers now know that there are Ice Eagles in this area and they may have special defenses to deal with them.


    Sounds expensive both to build and to up-keep, but my mana will do me no good if I get killed.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%; background-color: rgba(230, 126, 35, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Alert</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Core Killers are now approaching Trap 2</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Good timing, I have a defensive plan and once I have tracked the Core Killers back to their spawn point, I can use any mana left over from undermining that spawn point to start implementing it.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(224, 62, 45, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    There they are, now to Follow as many of the non-armored non-staff holders as I can while they pass through, Following mounts as a secondary choice.


    Wow, they were moving pretty rapidly. I only managed to Follow a few mounts, but I got all of the riders that I was targeting, including the short one that went into the water. It reacted when I did so, but the Follow has not been removed, so perhaps they do not realize what it was.


    Ok, after entering the spawn area, they went to a structure near the center where two of the riders, and all of the mounts except for the ones ridden by the armor wearers are separating and going to a smaller building near-by. That might be the mount spawner. A good target, but secondary to the Core Killer spawner.


    Ok, it feels like the remaining riders and the mounts that carried the armor are all gathered together in the middle of the structure. So I guess that is it, now I just need to determine if it would be faster to create new areas to approach, or if Trap 2 is close enough to suffice for¡­


    What? They de-spawned? Why would they? No, they moved. A long long way. Perhaps a thousand miles north and a hundred or so miles east?


    They are now in a new building, but it feels similar to the one they were in before, sort of like how a bat nest and a rat nest feel similar but not quite the same.


    The short one and the heavy mounts are all there, along with the other non-distinct core killers.


    And now they are leaving the building, in perhaps a different spawn area?


    It is hard to tell just what is going on, but clearly the building I was going to target is just another type of mount that moves invaders around. Useful to get rid of, but not the main target.


    Perhaps the ones that were left behind were local defenders that they brought along for some reason? Caretakers for the mounts perhaps?


    Well whatever the reason, it looks like my primary goal is not anywhere nearby. I am going to need to hop between mountain peaks to help minimize the number of areas needed to cover that much distance. Just using towers would take hundreds of areas, leaving a trail of small dungeons right back to my main core.


    Ok, I already have the defensive mountains located, and it is not yet second color change, so there is still time to locate the first travel target. Send out the doves north and north east to find peaks that can be targeted from Mountain 1 or one of the defensive mountains, then tomorrow I can send them out to find multiple areas in a chain heading the correct direction.


    They have returned, let me see what they found. Nothing useful to the north, but there is a peak a good hundred miles to the north east that should be targetable. Good work, I¡¯ll establish M Travel 1, MDef NE, MDef NW, MDef SE, and MDef SW.


    Well that is novel, I have nearly five thousand mana left after establishing the four defensive outposts and MTravel 1. Giving them a standard core room with all those trees is probably counter-productive as far as making them easy to re-capture, but even fifty mana a day does not seem like a particular threat.


    Hmm, while I was distracted, it looks like those two carriers stopped walking together. I wonder if the place where they split up is where the cursed hammer is kept. That could be important when it comes to stopping their activities. They would not be nearly as threatening if they did not have that or the core enslavement devices.


    As the Core Killers that made the thousand mile jump all seem to have gone quiescent in the same structure, I can only guess that that would be their spawning structure. If I can destroy that, then kill them before it is rebuilt, that should stop them from being able to come after me any more. Hopefully that is their only nest, but considering how far they traveled to get to Trap 1, that seems plausible.


    Now I suppose it is time to spend the rest of that mana expanding the lake area. I did expand my territory by nearly seven hundred spaces without corresponding mana generation after all, not to mention being a good twelve hundred mana below my max at the start of the day. About forty-five hundred mana should be enough to increase my mana generation by fifteen hundred more than my mana capacity, so what else?


    You know, with all that water mana, I wonder if that can be used to claim territory like normal mana. It would hardly be cost-effective for dry areas, but if it can claim water areas and still benefit from the doubled efficiency when dealing with water, that could be a very mana efficient for trying to claim the lake.


    That seems to work, so I was able to use the last four hundred fifty mana for planting water plants in the newly claimed area on the water side of the shore.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 99.9729%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">


    The group designated Core killers was tracked from the vicinity of Trap 1 to the collection of structures sixty miles northwest of the starting point. They were then followed through a discontinuity to an area roughly a thousand miles further north.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">


    The scouting party consisted of twenty doves, twelve bats, twelve coyotes, four ice doves, and four Giant Ice Eagles.


    Twenty doves, ten bats, twelve coyotes, four ice doves and four giant ice eagles returned. One Giant Ice Eagle was badly injured.


    There was one invader killed and no resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 Lunge and block

    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.0921%; text-align: center">Day 40</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.1186%; text-align: center">


    MDef NE/SE/NW/SW, MTravel 1


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.1186%; text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.1186%; text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="width: 49.1186%; text-align: center">


    Lake report:


    100% of shore claimed to three spaces and planted with grass. 80% of shore claimed out to four spaces and planted with grass. 9870 total shore spaces.


    17% of water-side shore claimed. 498 total underwater spaces 449 with grass. 0.4% of lake floor claimed


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    status Day 40, Size: 25,211, core 40, Fifty Eight upgrades available


    Mana: 11,830/12,605 Water: 1313/12,605 Ice: 587/12,605 Fire: 0/12,605 Lava: 0/12,605


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    It occurs to me that I need doves at MTravel 1 if I want to send them out to find the next jump-point.


    If I add those into the jump-point cost, I should have the mana to afford at least fifteen jumps, today, probably sixteen if I left the core sitting out while the next location was scouted.


    Unfortunately, if last night is any indication, I¡¯ll be lucky to get four jumps. But on the plus side, four jumps of a hundred miles gives me more distance than a hundred and fifty jumps when I was building towers. And as the scouts are looking for locations with good visibility moving forwards, I should not need to worry about needing to make shorter jumps. If I can keep going from mountain top to mountain top all the way there, I might arrive in as little as three days perhaps? That seems pretty quick for a sessile dungeon to travel over a thousand miles, so I doubt they will be expecting me.


    Ah, good, first color change, time to send out the doves to find the next step towards the home of the core-killers.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%; background-color: rgba(230, 126, 35, 1)" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Alert</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    A large group of invaders wearing core-killer emblems were identified leaving a large spawning area forty miles north of Mountain 1, heading south.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Oh, wow, I was not expecting them to be back so quickly. There must be one of those travel buildings in that spawning area.


    Hopefully my fourteen giant eagles can deal with them before they get too close.


    Better have them all move in then attack at the same time, hopefully the damage dealt will be spread out more and some of them will be in good enough shape for a second stoop before they retreat.


    Ah, found a good spot for MTravel 2. The core killers are still a long ways away, so hopefully they will not be able to detect sending out a new sub-core, especially as it is quite some distance from them and targeting even further away.


    Now, hide my targeting core back in the storage area, build out the new surface with the nests and spawns, then send out some doves to find a target for MTravel 3.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Attack Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The ice eagles led the first stoop, but had to veer off when they were targeted by numerous fire attacks. The fire eagles behind them managed to grab four staff holders and two archers that were defending the formation. Two died from the initial grab, three died by the time they hit the ground, and one survived, managing to slow the fall and put out the fire after receiving serious wounds. One of the Fire eagles was seriously hit and had to return to base with a detour to another peak beforehand. One fire eagle was hit in both eyes and crashed into its attacker, both are considered lost.


    The eight remaining fire eagles led the second stoop, they were mostly unaffected by the fire-based defenses used, and managed to take out the last two defending staff holders and four archers. The ice eagles managed to take out the last archer and the previously injured staff holder in addition to the staff-holder that was healing it.


    The remaining unarmored invaders were cluttered in the middle of the armored invaders who aimed lances at any eagle that attempted to approach. As the ice eagle that attempted to attack the formation proved ineffective and did not survive the attempt, the remaining eagles either returned indirectly to their base if injured or to scouting if uninjured.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    One Ice Eagle and One Fire eagle were lost, two ice eagles and five fire eagles were injured, seven staff holders and seven archers were killed in the attack.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Oh, I did not notice last time, but it looks like I gained a hundred mana for each invader that was killed. That is nice. Not as nice a full mana, but still nice.


    It seems like the invaders got really far after they were spotted and before the attacks. It may be better to bring in the eagles from MTravel 1 and 2 as reserves, but not wait for them before making the initial attack. Just waiting for MTravel 1 to arrive took longer than I probably want to wait next time.


    Well, I chased them off for now, and tomorrow I will have almost twice as many Fire Eagles, so hopefully that will keep them from getting very far even if they come prepared to face what they faced today.


    Oh, a dove is back? Did it find a good place for MTravel 3?


    Looks like it did, so let¡¯s put that one down with its own scouts and defenders, letting us hide away the core of MTravel 2 and send out scouts for MTravel 4.


    The east and north east doves returned without finding any particularly good prospects, it seems that the mountains are fading to hills that do not have the height for my fifty mile plus steps. I can head that way, but I suspect they would not even be suitable for eagle nests, so I would either need to identify something suitable to the new environment that I could empower with an appropriate element, or use an upgrade to gain general access to GIant Eagles so I can place their nests outside of the mountains.


    I could probably manage normal sized eagles if I placed the nests on top of stone towers, but those sound like a pretty obvious indicator of a dungeon.


    That is the down-side of getting the groupings instead of individuals, I suppose, as I can only use them where they are environmentally appropriate. I wonder if that is why the Raptor and Ungulant groups are so large for a single upgrade: they would be very difficult for a normal dungeon to get much use out of them.


    Ah, good, the dove sent north managed to find something suitable to the north and a little west. So establishing the surface parts of MTravel 4 and send out the dove scouts to the north, north east and north west, as there seems to be little available to the east.


    Finish up MTravel 4, move the core for MTravel 3 down into the core room, and done, now to see if the doves can find MTravel 5 before second color change when they return.


    Building all of these lava tubes reminds me that many of my core rooms only have a little bit of ice protecting them under a large depth of water. As I am producing over a hundred ice mana per day, there is little reason not to use some of that to make those ice barriers deeper than they are. How about Mountain 1, that one is pretty exposed and apparently under attack, so putting in a bunch of ice and grass to support it seems like a good start.


    Hopefully the lava tubes will prove at least as effective a deterrent as the ice tubes. I wonder if I would add the small snake swarms to both of those, or just leave them as a surprise for Lake 1 defense?


    I should probably wait until I have seen how useful the lava tubes are for defense, no point putting snakes in them if they are trivial to bypass and need to be replaced with a different entrance after all.


    Ah, the scouts have returned and one of them found a suitable peak. Only half as tall as Mountain 1, but they seem to be getting shorter and shorter as I go. And this one is only about sixty miles from MTravel4. Hopefully tomorrow I can manage more or longer steps, as I still have more than a thousand miles to go.


    Well traveling is done for now, and I still have over nine thousand mana thanks to those kills. How much of the wet side of the shore can I claim using only water mana?


    Looks like the rest of the first ring, all of the second ring and more than half of the third ring. Planting all of that with grass should do good things for my water mana generation. Although it does take more than half of my remaining mana to do so.


    I am tempted to try using my old method of targeting to find the next mountain so I can keep expanding with the mana I have left, but even when I knew exactly where the top of the mountain was, it was quite a challenge to hit it. If I just scan for distant areas and plant a core there, I am concerned about planting a core on the side of a mountain where the top is not close-by and the current area cannot target areas closer to the destination.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    For now I suppose I will satisfy myself with more distance than a hundred tower-based steps, and grow my mana generation to allow me to make more tower hops in a day should that need arise.


    That said, it looks like I have enough mana to claim and put grass on the rest of the fourth ring, all of the fifth ring, and about a third of the sixth ring, meaning I now control all of the surface within fifty to sixty feet of the shore. If I keep growing like this, I may well reach MDef SE in another twenty or thirty days.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The group designated Core killers was tracked from the vicinity of a large collection of structures forty miles north of Mountain 1 to a point roughly halfway between those structures and Mountain 1 where they were attacked by a group of four Giant Ice Eagles and ten Giant Fire Eagles. Fourteen were killed and two were lost


    After the combat the Core killers waited for a while, then started heading back towards the structures at a slower pace, maintaining a close formation.


    Fifty miles north east of MTravel 4 is a body of water roughly one hundred miles wide, narrowing to the north west to less than twenty miles wide. Beyond the narrow point it quickly widens to more than fifty miles wide. The body of water extends for more than one hundred and fifty miles east of MTravel 4.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of twenty doves, twelve bats, twelve coyotes, four ice doves, four Giant Ice Eagles and ten Giant Fire Eagles.


    Twenty doves, ten bats, twelve coyotes, four ice doves, Three giant ice eagles and nine Giant Fire Eagles returned. Three Giant Ice Eagles and five Giant Fire Eagles were injured.


    There were fourteen invaders killed and no resources harvested.


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Lava can provide a challenge to even the most experienced of delvers. While it is similar to mud in that it is a fluid form of earth, without the lighter water to reduce the density or the air pockets that permeate loosened soil, lava is generally too dense to make any head-way through without extreme measures. Additionally, lava is hot enough that it will rapidly destroy any tools, equipment or personnel in close proximity without significant protection. This makes moving lava almost impossible without significant use of magic, as even bringing in cold or water to neutralize the damaging heat will only turn the lava into hard stone that is even harder to penetrate.


    That said, the heat and glow of magma can dramatically change the ambiance of a room or section, easily emphasizing an area as dangerous and not for the ill-prepared.


    While lava works well as a threat, it is often not tenable as an actual challenge, except as a severe punishment for failure for those seeking the richest treasures. An example might be a room where delvers need to jump from platform to platform to reach a reward, but instead of the forgiving unpleasantness of mud below the platforms, a major prize might have lava in place of the mud, turning a fall from something unpleasant but not hazardous to potentially life-threatening.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 41</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 60%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    MTravel 2-5


    </td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center"></td>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center">


    Mountain 1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 49.12%; text-align: center" colspan="2">


    Lake report:


    100% of shore claimed to five spaces and planted with grass.


    33% of shore claimed out to six spaces and planted with grass.


    12870 total shore spaces.


    100% of water-side shore claimed to two spaces deep.


    40% claimed to three spaces deep.


    5750 total underwater spaces, 5701 with grass (5%)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">


    status Day 40, Size: 29,521, Sixty Four upgrades available


    Mana: 14,760*/14,760, Water: 5901/14,760, Ice: 727/14,760 Fire: 2/14,760 Lava: 3/14,760


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Surprisingly, it looks like I hit my mana cap, even with all those low mana expansions and prioritizing water mana over normal mana. I also got a few fire and lava mana, so I guess it takes slightly less than half of a typed mana to maintain each space with that configuration.


    Speaking of mana, I have plenty of mana to go further than the two to three hundred mils I can scout with my doves, but I got my doves by asking for something inconspicuous, if I use a couple upgrades, I could get the common bird that can fly the fastest and farthest in a day, then perhaps the fastest bat so I can travel day and night?


    Not terribly efficient, but with sixty upgrades and more every day, I can afford to use a few.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 50%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Defender: Common Swift</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Upgrade Complete, New Defender: Free-tailed bat</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    That ¡®common¡¯ in the name sounds promising, although I doubt they are commonly elementally enhanced. As it is still the middle of the night, might as well start with an out-cropping with a bat nest on the under-side.


    Ah, the bats have returned. Huh, it seems like it landed in several places, although one of them got more attention than the others, it also seems like it had to spend a lot of time at and around the step location before it came back. I wonder if this scouting irregularity is related to why birds will only scout between first and second color change?


    Well, even if it is approaching first color change, at least I got an extra step for today: MTravel 6 and it is far enough north that it should be on the other sie of the hundred mile wide lake that was limiting my expansion options. But if Lake 1 ever comes under threat, a base hidden under a hundred mile wide lake seems like it would be difficult to find, so something to keep in mind.


    If the bats are not working well, I wonder if I could send the birds out in pairs, so that while the first bird is coming back to report a good location, the second can continue on to find a second location and then return to the new base to report it.


    It might be a little complicated to relay that to the scouts, but if I can get it to work it should help speed things up nicely.


    So I¡¯ll make two nests of swifts at MTravel 6 and send them out in pairs.


    While I wait for them to come back to report, I am wondering what I should do about the Core Killers coming after Mountain 1. Sure there are four defender sites around it to help, but the core killers now know I have a bunch of giant ice and fire eagles, so they may be ready for them.


    Are there any more peaks between MDef NW and the transport point? Perhaps I can send out the doves at MDef NW to find the six tallest peaks between their nest and the structures, and put more defensive installations on them?


    Oh? That was pretty quick, are there six more tall peaks?


    There we go, an even dozen locations to put more defender spawns between the transport point and Mountain 1. So, half ice and half lava? They have seen both of those, do I have any other viable options?


    What about acid and poison?


    I could do three of each, with the Ice on the tallest where the natural ice is closest, then the poison, acid, and fire on the shortest of the peaks?


    Sounds like a plan, A quick move of the targeting core from Storage and I wonder how many of the designated peaks I can reach from MDef NW.


    I got eight of them, now let us see if I can use those to reach the last four without the added cost of moving cores around for better targeting.


    Oh, before I build those out, a swift came back with a good location for MTravel 7. Two hundred and fifty miles, quite the step, and the other swift is out looking for a place for MTravel 8 while I make that return trip shorter by building MTravel 7.


    Ok, Fire and Lava done for MT7, so now for the ice water for MDef NW 2 to 4.


    It looks like poison wants to be a gas, so I had to make the maze full of both water and poison to have something they need to swim through, as just sleep gas was ineffective against those that were prepared, but the ice water stopped even prepared core killers.


    Fortunately acid and lava are both happy to be liquids when I put them down, so no need to combine them with anything to increase the difficulty.


    A dozen defensive sites feels like a lot, but when dealing with people that want to kill me and my kind, too much is very preferable to too little.


    It seems that the swifts are living up to their name, with a sustained rate of travel roughly half again the speed of the doves, which is fortunate, as the mountains on the other side of the water seem to be much more spread out than the range I am in on this side. Or at least the mountains in the direction I want to travel are spread out. Another interesting tidbit is that they do not seem to like spending much time on the ground. They also seem happy to fly after second color change, which is nice. I am not sure if they would do a better job than the bats for scouting at the start and end of the day, but that is something to try. Especially as the last set of scouts I sent out are not back yet.


    I still have enough mana for five more mountain tops, so I¡¯ll reserve mana for at least one more in case the scouts come back with a location, but I should expand my hold of the bottom of the lake, and possibly speed that up with more water weeds.


    With almost six thousand water mana, I can claim roughly another ten percent of the lake bed, even if I can only plant about fifteen hundred of those spaces with grass.


    Oh, nice, the scouts returned with another mountain top. I¡¯ll go ahead and establish MTravel 9 and put the rest into water grass. At this rate I should be able to claim the entire lake bed in just a few more days, and then start taking control of the rest of the water area in the lake.


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


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    MTravel 6-8 are on a large body of land that is roughly square and about four hundred and fifty miles on each side. There are mountains along the north along with some mountains in the center and southern portions of the land mass. MTravel 9 in the eastern portion of the northern mountains where the land mass extends to the north and east. MTravel 9 is roughly six hundred miles south of the target designated as Core Killer Base 1.


    The area between Mountain 1 and the target designated enemy Transport 2 is currently patrolled by Forty two elemental doves and twenty eight giant elemental eagles.


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%">


    The scouting party consisted of twenty six doves, twelve bats, twelve coyotes, fifteen ice doves, thirty nine fire doves, nine poison doves, nine acid doves, twelve fire swifts, ten Giant Ice Eagles forty nine Giant Fire Eagles, six giant poison eagles, and six giant acid eagles.


    All scouts returned.


    There were no invaders killed and no resources harvested.


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Intruder Detected</td>


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    Wait, where? MDef 12? They surrounded it? How have they already killed the giant eagles? The doves are almost gone too? How did they bypass my scouts? What are they-?


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Day 42</td>


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 Attempts at self defense

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    <td style="width: 99.0921%; text-align: center">Day 42</td>


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    MDef NW 2-4


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    MDef NW 5-7


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    MDef NW 8-10


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    MDef NW 11-13


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    Lake report:


    100% of shore claimed to five spaces and planted with grass. 33% of shore claimed out to six spaces and planted with grass. 12870 total shore spaces.


    100% of water-side shore claimed to nine spaces deep. 6% claimed to ten spaces deep. 17498 total underwater spaces, 8014 with grass (16% of lake floor claimed)


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    status Day 42, Size: 49,659, core 42, Eighty Eight upgrades available


    Mana: 15,644/24,829, Water: 8214, Ice: 587 Fire: 5 Lava: 12


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    Oh, perhaps they traveled at after second color change to avoid my highly effective eagle scouts. It is good that they focused on MDef NW12, as that is nearly twenty miles from Mountain 1 and I am well warned before spending any of my mana for today.


    There sure seem to be a lot of them however.


    I have seen well over twenty individuals, even if no more than ten or so have entered my area at a time. It seems like my Giant Fire Eagles were deemed an effective threat since they went after them first. Fortunately, I have a lot more available that I can call in at first color change.


    Well, they certainly are being through. The birds are all dead, the nests torn apart and now they are taking all of my fire grass.


    They seem to be doing some magic at my entrance. I want to see what they can do, but I am not willing to give them access to the core, so time to put in those other traps.


    Feels like I can do tiny or small projectiles either alone, in a small or large group. Since I only need a single impact, and tiny should be harder to detect, I am going to have a manually triggered trap on the support next to the core, on the side facing the core, and the trap will launch a large group of tiny projectiles. Five mana, seems reasonable. Now, how about those spikes. Feels like the basic spike can hit the space where it is deployed. But there is a longer spikes option, for hitting an adjacent space as well. They also have small and large group options. There are two empty diagonals to the core, how about a small group of long spikes in each of them pointing at the core, looks like six mana each. That gives me three different options, each one with multiple opportunities to trigger the core trap. The new traps plus not letting them get close to the core will hopefully be more effective than the carelessness I showed with Trap 1.


    Are they stealing my lava too? There are a couple of staff-holders standing near the entrance, and they are doing something to pull a steady stream of my lava out of the entrance and letting it pile up a few spaces down-hill. Perhaps not steal. As no one seems to want to get close to the slowly growing and hardening pile, so they are trying to drain my lava?


    That seems much more challenging than just trying to swim through it. They have managed to empty the first space and open the secret hatch under it, but the smaller person who did it seemed to be on fire by the time they got back out. They were also being very noisy.


    On the plus side, it looks like fresh lava is slowly seeping out of the walls of the drained area, presumably part of the up-keep.


    I wonder if I could super-charge that refill process? If not, I could at least generate more lava deeper in the shaft and have it refill the stolen lava from below.


    But first I think I should wait for my eagles to be available to get a better idea on how many of them there are, and if I can deal with them without revealing any new tricks. It is not like they are draining the lava very fast after all, they probably will not get past the third or fourth space before first color change.


    They stopped? They seem concerned about the lava grass down in the shaft that they uncovered. Perhaps because it is dripping lava even faster than the walls? The smaller invader is there and has new, white wrappings on its extremities, but seems to have strong objections to going back into the opening. The small invader finally leaves and the staff-holders gather around the opening while manipulating the local mana. It seems that they are trying to harvest the lava grass, but whatever they are doing is also making it release a lot more lava. By the time they get the grass out of the entrance it refilled almost half of the space it was in. If they need to do that for the other twenty six lava grass, it is going to take them multiple days to get down to the core.


    I wonder why they are not trying to dig down? Is it because it is rock and not dirt? Perhaps because they cannot detect the collection area of the sub-core? Whatever it is, I am glad it is slowing them down, as I am not keen to sacrifice my defenses any faster than I must.


    Finally, time to send scouts to check on how many enemies I am dealing with. They just got the second lava grass out, so they are now down to less than four days to reach the core chamber of MDef NW12 at their current rate of progress.


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Scouting Report</td>


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    MDef NW12 is currently surrounded by roughly a hundred invaders mostly wearing the core-killer icon.


    There seems to be some sort of transparent dome covering the entire area, but the purpose of this dome is not entirely clear.


    Any scouts that approach are immediately attacked by both spell and arrow. The intensity and immediacy of the attacks suggest a high rate of attrition for any attacks made against the invaders with giant eagles.


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    The scouting party consisted of four Giant Fire Eagles and two Giant Acid Eagles.


    All scouts returned.


    There were no invaders killed and no resources harvested


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    Interesting. I wonder how they would handle nearly fifty Giant Elemental Eagles harassing them?


    Getting just close enough to make the core killers shoot in defense then veering off? If they are not in formations and each make approaches from different directions or angles, that might drain their mana reserves and slow them down even further. Moving lava seems pretty mana intensive as they were on their third set when they harvested the second lava grass, and none of the staff-holders from the first set have returned yet.


    Well, that certainly seems to be an effective distraction, as even the current lava drainers are now focused on the harassing eagles. So, while no one is paying attention, seems like an ideal time to see what happens if I supercharge the lava chimney with say, two mana per space to produce more lava?


    That is quite the plume of lava, I hope it does not go high enough to actually endanger any of my birds. I wonder if I can get a status report on how the harassing and excess lava are affecting the invaders?


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Attack Report</td>


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    Forty eight Giant Elemental Eagles approached the enemy position while maintaining a safe distance and not directly engaging. The enemy position responded with an on-going barrage of attacks that may have been intended to drive off the eagles. During this action, a spray of lava was launched from the dungeon and started painting the inside of the transparent bubble around the invaders. When the bubble dissipated, the lava fell back to the ground, starting fires.


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    Many invaders were struck by the falling lava, most of which went down. Some due to being struck from above by hardening lava, others by the residual heat setting fire to both cloth and flesh. Those enclosed in metal armor seemed to fare best, but still made great haste to shed any armor which had lava sticking to it, even if it had hardened.


    Roughly one sixth of the invading force have been knocked down, with an additional third fleeing north west in a disorganized fashion.


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    That sounds good, if roughly half of the invaders are at least injured or fleeing. Eagles, go pick off any of the retreating invaders that do not immediately shoot at your approach.


    The remaining core killers seem very unhappy with this eventuality, especially when the eagles peel off and start attacking the ones that ran away. Many of them start yelling at each other, while others fire off magic effects at the area around the entrance. Those do not seem to have much effect aside from leaving a few cracks and scorch marks. The others seem more worried about the invaders that were knocked down. It seems that less than half of them were killed, with many of them having burned flesh or missing limbs where they were struck by falling lava. That was surprisingly effective. I have already seen an invader maneuver within both water and ice water, so I wonder if either acid or poison-water would be more similar to the ice or lava.


    Then again, perhaps Ice could be as effective as lava if it were as far away from the ambient temperature as the lava is. Ice is usually less than the ambient by no more than a hundred degrees, while lava is closer to a thousand degrees above the ambient temperature. I may need to try supercharging the ice next time someone tries to swim through my ice-water to see if I can get it closer to a thousand below ambient.


    Hmm, that idea feels difficult. Not the supercharging, but the thousand degrees. Well, no real opportunity to test it now, so I¡¯ll just need to wait and see what happens when I can.


    Looks like the remaining invaders are getting organized again, putting the injured in a cloth structure outside of the lava-affected area, but they do not seem to be putting the bubble back in place.


    Looks like they are getting ready to start draining the lava again. I hope they appreciate the refill and that I re-planted those two lava grass for them.


    It does seem like instead of the bubble, they put up some sort of channel so that if I shoot out lava again, it will just go down the middle of the already scorched area and not towards where they are setting up their remaining structures.


    It would be nice if I can do that again, but they do seem to learn quickly.


    It seems they decided that draining the lava was not worthwhile if I can just fill it back up again, and they are instead starting to dig through the rock. Although it seems that digging through the rock, even with magic, is a lot slower than digging through dirt. Good to know.


    Hmm, if the lava is giving them so much difficulty, what if I put in a magma floor, perhaps twenty levels down? That would still be well above the top of the mana collection field, although it might be expensive to do it as a standard feature.


    Then again, it looks like it will take them more than half a day to get down that far, so it can probably be added on an as-needed basis.


    Oof, more than thirteen hundred to make a floor eight wide on each side of the shaft and filled with magma and lava grass. On the plus side, it will generate enough lava mana to make three of those lava plumes per day should the need arise. Of course supporting all of that grass underground also costs more than the core room, so another good reason not to spread these around too much.


    Oh, the first scouting swift has returned with a distant peak to claim, good bird.


    I think I like the idea of continuing to use lava defenses for the travel sites, as it seems to be a very effective material for defense. Although I suspect it also blocks the bonus intake mana for having an opening. Not that that matters a great deal, as it would only be an extra seventeen mana, and that is less than the amount that my mana varies every day due to local wildlife seeking water.


    It seems that burrowing through rock is even slower than sucking out my lava. Then again, the stone hardly returns like my lava does


    It took about a quarter of a day for them to dig out a dozen floors worth of earth, while it takes them about the same amount of time to suck out three floors worth of lava, and the same amount of time to dig out about two and a half floors worth of stone. If they continue at that rate, they will hit my magma shield in a little under two days.


    No wonder they wanted to do the lava chimney first, even working as a group, it seems like they can only tunnel through rock at half the speed of a starting dungeon.


    The Eagles managed to pick off some of the runners, but most of them escaped by coming back to MDef NW12 after the initial confusion died down. I would at least comfort myself with having seriously injured several of the invaders, if not for the fact that one of the staff holders currently digging through the rock has a pink and hairless arm and pink and sandals foot where I distinctly remember them having a pair of scorched stumps where that extremity was burned off by the falling lava. I¡¯ll have the eagles go back to harassing, but I do not have any good ideas on how to take advantage of the invaders being distracted. Perhaps one of the eagles will get lucky and take out an invader that is not paying attention?


    Ah, a good location for MTravel 11 has been identified. Hopefully it is somewhat better than MTravel 10, as that just seems to be a few high ridges five hundred plus miles south of the target. That would not be bad, but the scouts found nothing north or northwest with any height to let me travel a decent distance. MTravel 11 is north east even though I am already east of the target, so hopefully it will lead to something heading in a better direction.


    You know, these core-killer people seemed a lot scarier before they got slowed to a crawl by something so trivial as digging through solid stone. They could probably go faster if they were not so worried about making all of those steps in the side of the wall, not even proper steps, but very narrow steps that are probably hard for the ones wearing armor to go up and down. Not that I would offer them such advice, even if I could, they are trying to kill me after all. Actually, those stairs might be a good thing, as they will no doubt need to carry the hammer chest or an enslaving chest down them if they ever get through, so perhaps that will be an opportunity to have a bat or dive fly into their faces to try and get them to fall off of the stairs. I do not know if a fall of a few dozen floors would matter much to the invaders(although my instincts suggest that it would be bad news for most non-fliers), hopefully it would break any chest or chest-contents that were being carried.


    Hmm, the location found for MTravel 12 is still going north east. A hundred mile step and only getting thirty miles closer. Not great, but better than the steps I can manage myself. At least they are fr enough apart that it should be implausible for them to be considered as part of the same dungeon, even if the structures are almost identical(not that it seems like anyone will be getting a proper look at the layout beyond the surface).


    It took them half the day(more if you count the failed start on the lava tube), but they are now a quarter of the way down to my magma shield. They have more than eighty percent of their starting force, and I am in need of some good ideas on how to deal with them. Hopefully the magma shield will surprise and destroy some of them, but I should not expect that to work more than once, and I am not coming up with a reliable idea for stopping them.


    Second color change is starting, so I can have the eagles all fly up high and dive down on them all at the same time to try and take some of them out. I¡¯ll lose some eagles, but hopefully not more than will respawn from the day change. What I want is a much bigger and tougher bird, but eagles are just about the biggest raptor there is.


    Just about. Wasn¡¯t there a legendary raptor mentioned in that description? It needs the highest peak to nest in, but I have a bunch of peaks, and Mountain 1 is the tallest one I have. Perhaps it is tall enough?


    Oh, it feels like it is. Needs a huge nest however, a bit bigger than three by three. Considering that the giant eagles are happy in a nest no more than four feet across, the Roc sounds huge if it needs a nest nearly twenty feet across. Perhaps big enough to chase off the invaders even?


    Wow the Roc costs more than fifty mana even before the multiplier for having a spawn point, and it cannot even take on an elemental aspect boost.


    Really? Because it is a legendary beast, I do not get it on the day I create the spawn point, and the spawn point caps out at a single animal and not two per spawn like the others?


    I sure hope it proves effective, because I am kind of disappointed so far.


    In any case, the color change is well progressed and the eagles are about as high as they can get, so have them each target a bow or staff holder and dive on them in unison.


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%; text-align: center">Attack Report</td>


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    <td style="width: 99.1064%">Forty eight Giant Elemental Eagles approached the enemy position in a high altitude stoop. The enemy position responded with a barrage of attacks that managed to score fifteen direct hits. Eight of these were wing hits that forced the eagle off-course, three were head hits that either killed the eagle outright or caused it to crash into the ground at high speed. The other four were torso hits that may require extensive recovery, but did not stop the ongoing attack. Ten of the eagles were deflected off of invisible shields. Two eagles had the same target, and in the collision all three were killed. Nineteen eagles struck and killed their target. Two eagles injured their targets and managed to kill them before dropping them. Two eagles injured their target but did not get a good grip. One eagle grabbed and injured their target but was killed before finishing it off. One eagle was killed while leaving after the attack.</td>


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    Twenty two invaders were killed.


    Forty eagles returned, fifteen of them injured.


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    Only seventeen percent losses, not too bad when I can replenish fifty percent overnight. Although a lot of that was probably because they were not expecting a real attack after so much harassment.


    And there is the location for MTravel 13. A couple hundred miles closer than yesterday, so not bad. Still almost four hundred miles to go. Another good day or two and I can do more than just defend myself from attacks.


    Well, second color change has come and gone and I still have more than two thirds of my mana available, even before counting those interloper kills. I¡¯ll save about a thousand in case of an emergency, but the rest can go to expanding the grass in and around the lake, I think.


    Already? The lake bottom grass is barely more than two floors deep and any additional water grass will need maintenance. Fine, the rest can be planted on the shore, it will just take a few extra days to claim the lake floor.