《Titanic dungeon core》 chapter 1 +5 exp for mining quartz +2 exp for mining The kobold looked at the systems notifications and regretted that it had chosen the mining group when he was learning from the village¡¯s shaman. He and two older kobolds where the only other miners in this village. It is always boring but at least I get to see outside the cave where our village lies. Currently I am in an area where there are a lot of crystals, mostly just quartz. I cam barely see it in the pitch-black caves and only because my cave vision lets me see the irregularities in the wall. The older miners got a species evolution and probably a trait to see the different ores, gems and stones. +8 exp for mining pink quartz The exp I got was decent compared to some of the villagers who barely go outside of the village. Older kobold 1 ¡°HEY young one watch out where you mine if you dig deeper than that the hole you¡¯re digging will collapse¡± he said in a helpful tone while mining his own wall. As I look up, I see the rock indeed more under pressure thanks to my adept mining trait. ¡®I really need to pay more attention to my surroundings¡¯ I thought while looking for a better spot to mine. +2 exp for mining +1 LVL ¡°Oh, a level!¡± I say with my hands up. Older kobold 2 ¡°congrats on the level, you better not get used to levelling later. There is not so much good ore around the village cave and going further means death.¡± He said with a happy tone. ¡°Yeah, the warriors of our tribe can only protect so much. Luckily there are a lot of crystals in these caves.¡± I temporarily stop my mining so that a can confirm my level up and profit from the extra stats. So, I happily opened my status kobold miner Level 22 Species: high cave kobold class: crystal miner Mana: 145/145 Regen: 53mana per/h Titles: cave diver, miner Stats: STR: 77 DEX: 100 INT: 28 WIS: 5 CON: 85 CHA: 14 1 free status point Species traits: cave vision, hardened scales, trapper Traits: adept mining, crystal mining, Skills: Mining +150% Trapping +50% Cave diving +50% I added the free stat point to charisma. Hopefully, made that little increase me more attractive for that one beautiful pink kobold I have a crush for. ¡®Still three more levels before I can get another trait those are always useful¡¯
After sorting and selecting the best crystal from the vein we headed back to the village. The trip is difficult even without a sack full with heavy gems. Without the cave diver trait, it would be practically impossible to go from cave to cave. The three of us made it to the outpost where our warriors and hunters stay for long trips. Warrior kobold ¡°Back from your mining trip in the crystal caves¡± ¡°Yeah, a lot of pink quartz this time. The shamans and enchanters will certainly be happy with the amount we got today.¡± We took a rest at the outpost after our 3-hour trip to here. The hunters had found some stone bugs, they are very tasty when eaten raw. I and the miners got a few each. I ripped the stony outer shell of the hand sized bug and bit into it. The crunchy inner shell and legs are delicious. In my mouth the juicy inner parts flow out of the shell. ¡®Always delicious those stone bugs, too bad that they are rare and spoil very quickly. As we sat around a glowing mushroom eating our bugs, we talked about how to get better titles. One of the older miners isn¡¯t the brightest and got the miner title by eating rocks when he was little. He literally ate rocks for months. I would rather eat stone bugs. The oldest miner is again boasting about his strength stat that he is the only miner that has over 250 strengths. We are the only three miners of our village so he is technically right but, I won¡¯t question him he has already chucked me several times into a wall. It wasn¡¯t fun. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Older kobold 1 ¡°Look at these muscles youngster you won¡¯t get a girlfriend if you don¡¯t grow some muscles.¡± He flexes his arms in a striking pose. Older kobold 2 ¡°Nah, you need to be smart to get the girls. Like giving her a puzzle rock, a good way to show how smart you are and a tasty snack at the same time. ¡°Said the older kobold. He then snacked on the stony outer shell of the stone bugs I threw on the ground. I feel like he has taken some evolution to eat rocks. His scales looked greyer than the normal red scales normally found in the village. After we ate our fair share of stone bugs, we stowed the rest of the bug in our packs and went outside of the outpost towards the village. The caves after the outpost where more manageable to walk. The previous generation of miners made staircases and tunnels. The caves around the village are pretty big. The cave where we are ascending now is about 156 times higher than me. The cave formations in this cave are mostly loss rock fallen from the roof of the cave. That rubble the get carried away by the flooding of the water. Normally when it doesn¡¯t flood this cave has a small stream of high mineral water. It isn¡¯t drinkable because there a too many minerals in this stream. The water looks very white in colour next to a light and is even more viscous than pure water. As I look at the waterfall where this stream comes from the water suddenly stops flowing from it. Me and the other two kobolds look at the passage where it the water came from. Older kobold 1 ¡°Huh, that¡¯s strange. At this time of the year, it shouldn¡¯t stop flowing.¡± As the older kobold said that I feel the ground to begin to shake and a wind starts to blow our way. ¡°This isn¡¯t good¡± Older kobold 2 ¡°RUN, NOW.¡± He started running towards the highest point in the cave.¡± That is ether a giant flash flood or a giant lindwurm digging our way. Neither good things.¡± As we are running the shakings becomes too much for me to walk on and I fall on the ground. I look up towards where the other two kobolds are running and see a giant ring of teeth sticking out a wall next to them. The wall collapses and a giant scaled worm like worm rushes out. I see the two kobolds dodge the rushing lindwurm who digs immediately underground. As I lay on the ground, I feel the shaking slowly subsiding and finally I can stand on my legs again. But as I do the ground beneath me begins to crack like I smacked it with my pickaxe. I freeze but, the ground still cracks further. I look up to the other kobolds, they have a face full of shock as I fall into the depths of the abyss.
Pain, everything hurts. I can¡¯t feel my right arm, but I am at least alive for now. As I open my eyes, I see a giant blue crystal crushing my right arm. The rest of my body is impaled by smaller rocks or crushed by larger rocks. As there is nothing else to see and since I cannot move, I give the giant blue orb a better look. I see a system message pop up when I inspect the giant orb. Integrate with dungeon core [Yes] [No]. warning is accepted you will lose your current physical body. I again looked around if I could do something other than being a dungeon. I liked being a kobold. Trying to move I only moved my leg a little. Hopefully it is not bad being a dungeon core. I heard that they never die of age and don¡¯t eat so it will help me survive. I clicked [yes] and felt my consciousness shift into the giant dungeon core. When I tried to look around, I was overwhelmed that I saw in a 360 field of view. My old body now lifelessly sitting next to me. My new body is urging me to absorb my body. Since I don¡¯t have any other use for my old body and I can¡¯t bury it I absorb it. I feel my mana starts to rise. Status Level/floor 1 Species: Titanic core class: none Mana: 55/55 Regen: 1 mana/day Titles: massive Species traits: dungeon core, core bioengineering, titanic Traits: none Skills: Space warp: +1025% Bioengineering + 225 Biome creation +150% Mana regen -1000% What, where are my stats? Do all cores have this? As I wonder I look at my titles and species traits. Massive: This core has absorbed mana for an extremely long time and became way bigger than the average of its species. Increases the chance for your creatures to obtain an evolution that increases their size. So, this Title lets me get more bigger creatures in my dungeon. I am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Larger creatures need more mana or food to exist. But it will let me get better traits. Dungeon core: You are a mass of crystalized mana that¡¯s manipulates reality. A dungeon core is formed when a lot of mana is in one place. This orb of mana then absorbs mana until a creature touches it. The creature can choose to fuse with the empty core to become the ¡°brain¡± of the core. Never ages, knowledge on how to run a dungeon, +50 biome creation, +75% bioengineering, +25% space warp So, this trait gives me the knowledge and instinct to run a dungeon. Probably the same that guided me to absorb my body too. Now I need to figure out how to use those three skills. While this trait gives me knowledge about them it doesn¡¯t explain how it works. Titanic: You are titanic. A truly massive size for your species. Your size made it possible to warp space on a titanic scale. Space warp +1000%, +100% biome creation, -1000% mana from life, 100m3= 1 maximum mana This species trait probably gave me the massive trait. And what is it with that massive +1000% space warp. I really need to know how that works. I know that it warps space to create floors but, +1000% space warp does that mean I can make giant floors? The massive Title seems way better now. Core bioengineering: Through this species trait you may manipulate ¡°life¡±. You can change the appearance, species, race and traits from ¡°life¡± below level 10 and you cannot modify sentient species, +150% bioengineering I heard that most new life came out of dungeons. This trait makes it possible for those new life to be created. Sadly, I cannot create kobolds. No extra friends for me now. The skill biome creation lets me shape areas into a biome. Like digging rocks and soil. I begin with expanding the hole I am currently in. It does drain my mana pretty vast, but every part I dig out gets expanded by the space warp skill. Part by part I make the hole bigger. A part of the wall collapses and opens up to a decently big cave. My dungeon core ¡°aura¡± expands into it and I find that there is life in this cave. The cave itself is closed so no other pathways outside of it. Life in this cave is pretty colourful. There is a lightonium ore vein providing light in this cave. The creatures are small but that¡¯s enough for me. There is a small amphibian creature it has 6 legs. It has a very peculiar colour; it has a very reflective rainbow skin. The other two creatures are also small but bigger than the amphibian. One is a furry green coloured snake rat. It seems to be symbiotic with a plant. And the last one is a beetle with a bright red shell with orange in the middle of the shell. The beetle sometimes spits out flames in the little pool to grow a certain plant. The cave has a more variety of plants. The full red kelp that the fire beetles grow. The moss that grows with the green snakerat. And the pretty big mangrove like trees. The other plants are not very special and mostly cover the dry ground around the pool. The pool itself is almost devoid of plants except for the red plant and some algae. chapter 2 As the plants and creatures come into my aura I can use my [bioengineering] to check on them to see what species they are and traits they have. Since the first creature I saw was the amphibian I inspected that one first. Level 3 Species: Rainbow cavefibian Mana: 12/12 Regen: 2 mana per/h Species traits: [amphibian], [rainbow skin], [extreme metabolism] Interesting, the Bioengineering skill only lets me see the things that I can manipulate. That would make sense since some kobold herbalists get a trait that lets them see the effects of plants, but only information that¡¯s useful for herbalism. Hmmm, maybe I should get a trait that lets me see more but it not necessarily needed. [Core Bioengineering] added species traits to species trait library: [amphibian], [rainbow skin], [extremely slow metabolism] This looks useful I can reuse already found species traits so I need to find more creatures/plants to increase it. But now let¡¯s see what each species trait does of this amphibian. [amphibian]: This traitsgives the ability to survive both on land and in the water +50% land movement, +50% water movement and the ability to stay in water for a long time. [rainbow skin]: This trait gives a scintillating rainbow skin reflecting light in all sorts of colours. +75% find mate, -30% camouflage [extremely slow metabolism]: This trait give the ability to live on an extremely low amount of nutrients. +500% nutrient usage, -30% mobility These species traits are to be expected from an aquatic cave creature except for rainbow skin, but that is explained by the lightonium ore. Now lets see what the rest of plant/creatues have in store. Level 3 Species: snakerat Mana: 12/12 Regen: 2 mana per/h Species traits [symbiosis] (snakemoss), [extremely slow metabolism], [cave vision] Level 1 Species: snakemoss Mana: 0/0 Regen: 1 mana per/h Species traits [symbiosis] (snakerat), [extremely slow metabolism], [photosynthesis] Level 2 Species: firebeetle Mana: 13/25 Regen: 9 mana per/h Species traits [extremely slow metabolism], [fire core], [heat resistance] Level 5 Species: Fire-red kelp Mana: 5/5 Regen: 5 mana per/h Species traits [extremely slow metabolism], [Thermosynthesis], [lesser fire affinity] Level 4 Species: cave root-grove Mana: 0/0 Regen: 3 mana per/h Species traits [extremely slow metabolism], [photosynthesis], [rock digging] Level 1 Species: radiacave moss Mana: 0/0 Regen: 1 mana per/day Species traits [extremely slow metabolism], [radiathesis], [radiation resistance] [Core Bioengineering] added species traits to species trait library: [symbiosis], [cave vision], [photosynthesis], [fire core], [heat resistance], [Thermosynthesis], [lesser fire affinity], [rock digging], [radiathesis] and [radiation resistance]. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. It seems that all of the flora and fauna here have [extremely slow metabolism]. That¡¯s reasonable because this cave has no way in or out for nutrients to flow from. This mini biome is fueled by the lightonium¡¯s blue glow for energy. Lets see what the new species traits do. [symbiosis]: This trait gives the ability to share traits with another life that also has [symbiosis] (bonded). shares all other species traits with the bonded lifeform duplicate traits get improved by 1,2 times. [cave vision]: This trait gives the ability to see the outlines of a ¡°cave¡±. +50% cave vision and the ability to see the walls, floor and roof of a ¡°cave¡±. [photosynthesis]: This trait gives the ability to ¡°eat¡± light of the visible spectrum. +25% visible light nutrients [fire core]: This trait gives the ability to turn mana into fire +50% fire form mana [heat resistance] This trait gives the ability to resist heat +100% resistance (heat) [Thermosynthesis] This trait gives the ability to ¡°eat¡± heat +25% heat nutrients [lesser fire affinity] This trait gives an increased amount of affinity to fire +50% fire affinity (this effect applies to all ¡°fire¡± traits) [rock digging] This trait gives the ability to increase the effectiveness of digging into rock. +25% rock digging [radiathesis] This trait gives the ability to ¡°eat¡± radiation +25% radiation nutrients [radiation resistance] This trait gives the ability to resist radiation +100% resistance (radiation) A lot of basic traits with a few exceptions like the firekelp and radiacave moss. I thought that that moss was just regular cave moss with a weird blue colouration. It seems that the lightonium had more effect on this mini biome than I thought. And that firekelp, almost nothing has an affinity that isn¡¯t hunted for resources or farmed in secret. In the village only the high-shaman has access to a water affinity moss. And only he and his apprentice use it. It is kept secret by most because it can give you a better evolution and traits if you use it or eat it. I am glad I found this cave because it increases my mana regeneration, not by much though. I still have a -99% production form my trait. Luckily this cave has a decent amount of fauna and flora with a decent mana regen. For every mana they get I would be getting that equal amount of mana, but now I need 100 mana from them to get 1 mana myself. Status Level/floor 1 Species: Titanic core class: none Mana: 5/55 Regen: 2 mana/h It seems that all the life in the cave gave me almost a whopping 50x increase in mana regeneration. Then I notice that the cave is beginning to expand. The cave was only 31m3 before but now it is expanding very rapidly to around 2800m3. The pool in the middle stays where it is but does becomes deeper. The moss becomes patchy as the ground stretches. The cave root-grove mostly stick to the outside of the cave as they dug into the walls, but some do rip in half as one part sticks to the ceiling and the other on the floor. The thing that worries me the most is that the lightonium also begins to expand bringing the amount of deadly radiation up. Luckily the distance also increases from the floor. As the lightonium expands it increases the amount of light as well. I have heard that in some very cold places dwarven holds use massive chunks of refined lightonium as heating and light, as without those nothing realy grows and lives there. And everyone who visits there without a suit would melt, that¡¯s what some kobold traders say. After the cave has grown I see it has brought my maximum mana up from 56 to 61. It would seem that I need a lot of space to increase my mana. The sive of the cave went from around 7 by 9 by 5 meter to 630 by 810 by 450 meters thanks to my [Titanic] trait. Now that I have some mana regeneration let¡¯s see what I need to do to become a actual dungeon. My [dungeon core] trait says that I need to open up to the ¡°surface¡±. To do that I need to spend 50 mana on a pre-dug staircase or entrance. After which a gateway will appear connection the dungeon to the outside world. Which is sadly on the surface and a random spot on the surface as well. It does seem that the gateway favors the biome in your first floor as a spot to put the gateway. For example, if your dungeon has a lot of trees it will open a gateway in a forested region. The trait also says that when you open a entrance I will get a species trait and a class. It would seems that I would get a species trait and regular trait every floor I create after the first. That is very different than normal sapient creatures where you only get a trait every 5 class levels and maybe get extra species traits in advanced evolutions, but most evolutions lets you upgrade you existing traits. I have only heard stories of creatures with 4 or more species traits. After a 2 days I finally have enough mana to open an entrance. So I started making a stairway on the opposite side from my core. But I forgot that every dig I make gets expanded by 90x, so the lowest part of the stairs is 18 meters tall and 90 meters wide. I tine it down for the next few steps to only 4 meters tall, 10 meter wide and 100 meters to the roof per step. For I would find it funny to see other sapient creatures climbing down a giant staircase. Now the other sapient creatures can feel how it is to be small. After waiting a little bit because I little overdid the entrance creation I have a giant entrance 20 steps tall, for a total of 94 meters of decent. I gatherd my mana on the end of the staircase and after all 50 mana is used a spatial distortion starts to appear at the end of it. Space itself begins to wobble and after a minute or so a giant tear appears that fills the entirety of the end of the entrance. After it stabilized I could see trough it. It would seem that my entrance is on the side of a mountain. I could see quite far down the mountain, but sadly it would seem that I can¡¯t epand my aura past the gateway. Down the mountain there is a valley with a river. The valley spans to the left because on the right there were mountains. I followed the river and I see a town quite far away in the river flatlands. Congratulations on opening your entrance your reward for this is a class and a species trait! Oooh, lets see what these shall be I am always excited to see what my traits are when I get them from my class. Biome-engineer core Improves the ability to shape your dungeon into more unique and vibrant biomes. +100% biome creation, +50% mutation chance and gives [lesser life affinity] Spatial core Improves the ability to shape space to create even more space. +100% space warp, +100% size and gives [lesser space affinity] Bio-engineer core Improves the ability to modify and create species traits and appearance +150+ mutation chance, +75% bioengineering and gives [lesser chaos affinity] chapter 3 Interesting of these classes I only have heard about the space one in the form that someone who had used space affinity items to get the space wizard class. The other two had to be core specific hopefully. I wouldn¡¯t want to have a wizard that could mutate you that would be terrifying. And if they do exist hopefully they are bound to non-sapient mutations. But now what shall I choose. The biome-engineer core class gives me the ability to shape the biomes better in my dungeon. And also increases the chance for new species traits to come into existence. I do wonder why it gives me life affinity wouldn¡¯t it be better to get earth affinity, that would let me shape my dungeon better. But it does let me do more with everything that uses the ¡°life¡± keyword. Then we have the spatial core class. I think I got this option because of my titanic warp space skill. It would allow me to create even bigger spaces, not that +100% would matter much now. Later the class traits could do something more. +100% size, would that mean anything that could be affected by size would get twice as big. Hmmm no way of knowing before I get it. And we have the space affinity, a solid +50% on everything space related. Would that stack with the +100% size? Is size a ¡°space¡± trait? It would be a gamble on that, but the +100% size on it own would still be good. And finally we have the Bio-engineer core. I have heard from a few traveling felinids merchants that the most strange and alien creatures come from these dungeons. And even some sapient creatures came from these dungeons. Would be annoying if I accidentally created sapient creatures, can¡¯t modify them. It makes sense to have the strangest creatures with +150% mutation chance and chaos affinity for a total of 200%. And the increase to bioengineering to 300% would mean I would be 3 times as good in manipulating life. Since not having a trait doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t do certain things like running and swimming, but some traits gives you the ability to something and also improve that. After I choose my class I will probably only get traits that align with my class. I do think that I don¡¯t need the space core class because my [titanic] trait, if that gets upgraded it will probably give me more than enough space. Also my life also get more mutations and traits pointed towards larger size so I don¡¯t need the +100% that much. Although it would be funny to have giant everything. Now the question is between biome-engineer and bio-engineer. The two classes with the very similar names. Between the two are many similarities, but the biggest difference is that with biome-engineer I can shape the ground better. After thinking about it for a hour I think that I am going to go for bio-engineer. So I can create the most unique flora and fauna. And have more opportunities to get bigger creatures through mutation. So I selected the bio-engineer class. Normally selecting a class would mean you get all relevant knowledge beamed into your mind, if you didn¡¯t knowledge about it. Surprisingly the only knowledge that I got form my class it that the radiation that lightonium emits the chance of mutations increases. With the exception that if a lifeform has [radiation resistance]. can¡¯t get mutated by it if you can¡¯t get affected by it. The rest of the knowledge is probably already something I know from [core bioengineering]. As I was looking if anything else had changed about the knowledge I got I got a system message. Congratulations on opening your dungeon and choosing you class. For this you get rewarded with a title! You got the [Open dungeon] title! Interesting, let¡¯s see what that does. [open dungeon]: you have open your dungeon to the outside world. +25% mana regen form sapients and some classes can see where your entrance is. The dot they see scales with your dungeon size. That title would mean that maybe in a few days to month a group would come from that town. Although that last part of the tile would that mean the dot they see is 900x bigger than normal? How much of a map would that cover. It can maybe give me time. The classes will be less precise in pinpointing me. Either way let¡¯s see what the chances in my stats are. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Status Level/floor 1 Species: Titanic core class: Bio-Engineer core Mana: 2/245.734.594 Regen: 2 mana/h Titles: [massive], [open dungeon] Species traits: [dungeon core], [core bioengineering], [titanic] Traits: [lesser chaos affinity] Skills: [Space warp] +9025% [Bioengineering] +300% [Mutation chance] +150% (+50%) [Biome creation] +150% [Mana regen] +0% It would seem that the bonusses from the sapient mana regen would apply first and then the -99% form creature mana regen. I am not sure if that would give me that much of a difference. Even after becoming an immovable demigod I am still bad at math. Although I can approximate my size with my size with my maximum mana. {Euryale} somewhere in the town Euryale pondered the regional map checking if there are any irregularities. As she always does every 2 days. She saw several red dot near the forested regions and mountains. The red dot means a large group of monsters. ¡°it would seem that we need to send more adventurers to the mountain plateau. There is a large group of frost shrimp.¡± Muttered Euryale ¡°Ember, go and tell the adventuring guild that there is a large group of frost shrimp that need eradicating¡± Ember the small gecko-kin looked up to the large gorgon Euryale ¡°Y-yes lady Euryale, I shall go in haste¡±. As the small gecko-kin began to leave a giant blue dot appeared on the map covering over 30% of it. Euryale looked wide-eyed to the map ¡®¡¯This shouldn¡¯t happen either this dungeon has made many floors or is massive on the first floor¡± ¡°Ember before you leave also give the guild the information that a dungeon has appeared in the towns governing region.¡± Euryale hastily said to Ember. Ember looked back with surprised eyes for dungeons to appear is quite uncommon. {Titanic core} Now lets see what my new species trait option are. I doubt that I will get a new species trait option this soon. Species trait selection, you can choose one of the following. [improved dungeon core]: (upgrade) You are a mass of crystalized mana that¡¯s manipulates reality. A dungeon core is formed when a lot of mana is in one place. This orb of mana then absorbs mana until a creature touches it. The creature can choose to fuse with the empty core to become the ¡°brain¡± of the core. Never ages, more knowledge on how to run a dungeon, +100% biome creation, +100% bioengineering, +50% space warp. [improved core bioengineering]: (upgrade) Through this species trait you may manipulate ¡°life¡± better. You can change the appearance, species, race and species traits from ¡°life¡± below level 20 and you cannot modify sapient species, +200% bioengineering. [source crystal creation]: (new) Through this trait you can create source crystals. You can create crystals and source crystal better. Source crystal slowly generate a set resource (water, ores, dirt, etc). you can change the speed by which it generates resources by giving it mana. The more magical the slower the resource is generated. +50% crystal creation +25% source crystal creation +10% source crystal generation Oh well colour me blue I get a new species trait. It would seem that the [titanic] trait is kind of to high level for the current floor/level I am. And since I get 3 options it created a new species trait for me. Though if I do pick that one the upgrades that I get will probably be the those 3 traits. Not that I would mind [source crystal creation] looks very good. The other two just improve the ones I already know the [improved dungeon core] most useful part is the more dungeon knowledge part. For I know even after getting turned into a dungeon core I know very little about dungeon cores, just the basics. Then we have [improved core bioengineering] the increase of bioengineering Is not that important since I got my class that deals with that. But the part that interest me the most is the ability to modify creatures below lvl 20. Lets me play more with creatures after they become more powerful and older. An of course I have [source crystal creation]. It will let me do so much. Want light create a crystal that creates light. Heat boom. Creating a river by diverting water from above no need for that I got crystals. And I can always destroy the things the crystal can create. The downside is of course that anything magical will probably be produced in very small quantities. I can also lure more adventurers and sapients with ores. Although if I create a regular gold vein with it, gold would probably be worth a lot less very quickly. Luckily or sadly I have a lot of time to think about It since my mana regen is still abysmally slow. I really need more life and larger life to populate my dungeon. Spread my totally not radioactive moss, give me more mana. Maybe I should reduce the amount of the lightonium ore vein to reduce the radiation. Oh well more danger for the adventures to solve. At least it is not so high as those dwarven holds. chapter 4 Well the species trait selection is pretty obvious what I am going to pick [source crystal creation]!!. While the other two are also pretty good I cannot guarantee that I will get the same pick for the next level. It might become a different trait or variant upgrade for my existing species traits. And having automated sustained creation is pretty nice to have. Level/floor 1 Species: Titanic core class: Bio-Engineer core Mana: 6/480.889.015 Regen: 2 mana/h Titles: [massive], [open dungeon] Species traits: [dungeon core], [core bioengineering], [titanic], [source crystal creation] Traits: [lesser chaos affinity] Skills: [Space warp] +9025% [Bioengineering] +300% [Mutation chance] +150% (+50%) [Biome creation] +150% [crystal creation] +50% [Mana regen] +0% Now let¡¯s begin with some creature creation. I looked through the available fauna and flora to see which ones have the highest mana production. And those were the firebeetle and the fire-red kelp. To expand the living region of those I need more water for the fire-red kelp to grow in. After I increase the kelp the firebeetles shall multiply as well because they will have more food. So I created with 2 mana a very small water source crystal at the bottom of the now very small pool. Then dig the pool out more being careful not to make it too big. After spending another 2 mana to make it bigger by 40 times I start to wait for it to fill very slowly. After a total of 10 hours the pool is now half-filled. Having now 22 mana I begin to create young fire-red kelp at the bottom, as soon as I do that they mutate. That +200% mutation and the lightonium do make it so they mutate that much faster. Let¡¯s see what it lost and gained. Level 1 Species: Fire-red kelp Mana: 6/6 Regen: 6 mana per/h Species traits [minor gigantism] ,[Thermosynthesis], [lesser fire affinity] That makes sense since I have an increased chance to get size improving traits after all. And the new trait gets added to the library. [minor gigantism]: This trait increases the size of this lifeform. +25% size, +25% mana, +25% mana regen, +25% health, +25% metabolism usage, -10% movement That are a lot of bonusses. The max mana comes from when you are bigger you have more mana storage. Your body is the storage after all. Internal mana cores only convert mana into the element of the core. The same is for mana regen more body mass to generate and absorb mana. Health, more mass more parts that can get hurt before more important bits get hurt. But more mass means more body to feed. And the -10% movement on a plant is funny, go my plant move hehe. Now that the fire-red kelp has no longer [extremely slow metabolism] I do think that I need to add a source crystal with heat to feed the kelp. Before the mutation 1 part of heat gave the kelp 5 nutrients, now it needs 1,25 parts of heat to get 1 part nutrients. Over 5 times as much heat. So I created a heat source crystal where the most new fire kelp is. Hopefully the Rainbow cavefibian wouldn¡¯t mind a higher temperature. I can always recreate them with fire resistance if needed. Now let¡¯s create the new firebeetles with [minor gigantism]. Although I started to notice that they became very slow after the cave expanded. How could that happened. Ah!, that¡¯s it the space expanded but not the amount of air. Surprisingly they didn¡¯t explode by the pressure difference. Let¡¯s fix that issue shall I. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. With 10 mana I created an oxygen producing source crystal. This should do the trick, oxygen is the part that they breath and the plants shall get Co2 from the creatures. There is no need for other gasses right? Back to the fire beetles. The new firebeetles with [minor gigantism] looked just the same as the normal firebeetles but jus bigger. I saw no need for now to change the appearance of them. After creating the firebeetles and fire-red kelp my mana production spiked to a whopping 12mana/h. The creation of both and the crystals did drain me of all my remaining mana. The mana regeneration did not add up I should have 10 or lower where did the other 2 come from. I looked away from the pool and bug and saw a lot of moss. How did the moss grow that quickly. Level 10 Species: glowing radiacave moss Mana: 0/0 Regen: 8 mana per/day Species traits [greater growth], [radiation affinity], [Cherenkov light] It would seem than some patches of radiacove moss mutated and evolved into this newer version. It ever has [radiation affinity], not even the lesser version. Luckily they only grow near the lightonium ore the ones with the [radiation affinity]. Though there are some non-glowing radiacave moss with [greater growth] and glowing radiacave moss, but those seem to be dying quick as they don¡¯t have radiation resistance. [greater growth]: The ability to grow very quick +200% growth speed, +100% nutrients usage [radiation affinity]: Increases the affinity for radiation a lot +100% radiation affinity [Cherenkov light]: The ability to emit light via radiation +50% light emission +25% radiation emission The increased amount of lightonium ore gave the moss the opportunity to shed the [extremely slow metabolism] for [greater growth]. And it would seem that the evolved version near the ore also merged their [radiathesis] and [radiation resistance] to [radiation affinity]. It could also be that one of them evolved into the affinity and the other mutated, I would not know. And the last one [Cherenkov light] the moss mutated this one to cope with the increased radiation. Emitting excess radiation as light. Maybe I can mutate one to give light without the radiation part. But that¡¯s for later floors. now let¡¯s begin with my floor expansion. The floor itself is already massive but it needs to be more wide than tall. I begin to expand the floor creating more ledges, cliffs stalactites and stalagmites. The shape of the floor goes from the entrance as highest point slowly descending. The width is at its widest 5 kilometer. From the entrance to the end is over 40 kilometers. I made it so that where the now lake is with red-fire kelp directly after a giant cliff that goes down 3 kilometers. I made it so that there could be a giant waterfall directly after the lake down the cliff. After the cliff it made the height reach 6 kilometers before the cliff around 3 kilometers. It became very dark everywhere except for the now small part around the lake. Now the question is do I want source crystals producing lightonium or regular light. The combination would be best, for if some madmen try to climb over 3 kilometers to get to the lightonium they may have it. sadly it will take some time before that would come into fruition for my mana regeneration is slowly getting better. It will take some time to get enough mana to create strong enough sources crystal to light up the floor. {meanwhile in the town} Euryale watched with wide eyes as the blue dot slowly takes more of the map until it finally covers everything. ¡°This dungeon can¡¯t be that big¡± said she with unbelief. As she watched the map a group of people entered the Oracle. The group consisted of a larger than average muscular human with scars, orange Cat-kin and a purple kobold. The human spoke to the gorgon Euryale ¡°Sorry, I am what later was fighting some thunder gorillas¡± Euryale looks to the man and sees that he isn¡¯t carrying a weapon. ¡°I am the guild master of the rivermarsh adventurers-guild, admiral Alaric. And these two other fellows are the guild masters of the research and acquisition guild¡± He points towards the kobold when he says research guild and the orange-catkin for the acquisition guild. ¡°Now I am wondering why you called us three without telling us for what.¡± Euryale points towards the map and says ¡°this¡± The admiral and catkin look towards the map and only see blue, but the kobold immediately gasps saying ¡°That¡¯s not possible no dungeon has that much space¡±. Euryale says ¡°I have not confirmed it but it is that big¡± The admiral steps in ¡°What are you guys talking about?¡± Euryale sighs ¡°normally that blue dot means that there is a dungeon where the dot is.¡± ¡°The size of the dot means how big it is, normally it would only take up a small part.¡± The orange cat-kin looks up to the gorgon ¡°so that means a lot of treasure right? Dungeons always have a lot of treasure¡± Euryale looks at the devious cat-kin ¡°yes, there should be treasure. Possibly big treasure and big monsters¡± The admiral looks with a smile ¡°that means bigger creatures to fight! I will immediately create a expedition to where the dungeon is¡± the admiral looks to the map a bit embarrassed ¡°couch, Euryale do you know where it is?¡± ¡°Hopefully, when the dot was smaller I marked the middle point of it on this map. You can use the map¡± Euryale looks to a doorway in the room ¡°EMBER GET THE MAP I MARKED¡± They see the small gecko-kin dragging a map as big as he is. The admiral picks up the map like nothing ¡°thank you little guy. Off to adventure¡± and the guild master storms out of the oracle. Quickly followed by the two other guild master. {Back at the core} After a few days of expanding the lightonium and creating light source crystals the floor is almost entirely lit by the light. The glowing radioactive moss has spread across the majority of the roof. Sadly the light they give off is not enough to light up the cave, but the roof is glowing blue now so that¡¯s nice. I expanded the lake for even more fire-red kelp and firebeetle action. I placed more heating crystals in the lake. Unfortunately that did cause all of the amphibians to die, but I remade them at the bottom of the cliff. There I also made a big lake kilometer wide and 2 long. It is not very deep for it will be turned into a swampy marsh. The lake on the cliff is now almost boiling hot lots of steam is coming off it. The steam is causing it so that it rain form time to time. The rain itself becomes mildly radioactive since it condensates near the lightonium and radioactive moss. It is very irregular so nothing really dangerous. But most plants have mutated. The creatures I didn¡¯t respawn hadn¡¯t had the time to reproduce so they didn¡¯t mutate yet. The winner of the plant is the moss it covers most of every nook and cranny of the cave. I really need more plant types. The cave root-grove plant is the second winner it is growing nicely in the lower lake and near the walls. While I was inspecting the floor I created I looked outside. Near the town I see I giant group of people gathering. Lots of pack animals and the such. It seems that the town is going to try to find me. When they go inside I hope that don¡¯t clean their shoes and bring in seeds and spore¡¯s. maybe even a insect egg or two. chapter 5 It would seem that the expedition will take some days before they reach me. The main group that I mean. There is a high chance they will send a recon unit for scouting. Well then lets prepare for their arrival. Let¡¯s see what for new mutations my plant have gotten and time for me to create more ¡°dangerous¡± creatures. Level 5 Species: cave root-grove Mana: 0/0 Regen: 4 mana per/h Species traits [minor gigantism], [photosynthesis], [rock digging] Most of the root-grove that grows near the entrance just have the [minor gigantism] trait. And the ones that did evolve there upgraded their [rock digging] to [greater rock digging]. [greater rock digging] This trait gives the ability to increase the effectiveness of digging into rock greatly. +50% rock digging Another trait added to the library. The [greater rock digging] lets the root-grove dig itself deeper into the walls and limb even higher on the walls. Some of them are even over 500 meter up on the wall. At the bottom of the waterfall in the lower lake an entirely new root-grove has sprouted. Level 6 Species: swamp root-grove Mana: 0/0 Regen: 4 mana per/h Species traits [minor gigantism], [photosynthesis], [insoculation] [insoculation] This trait gives the ability to share nutrients between the same species via permanent bonding. +25% nutrients sharing That¡¯s an interesting trait. The root-cave in the lower lake are indeed fused together, creating a giant forest of branches that you can follow with no end. Except for some branches sticking upward. The ground beneath the lake is still stone. It makes it so that adventurers aren¡¯t slowed down much minus the many branches. By creating many patches of moss where they can¡¯t live and then killing the moss. A layer of dead plant matter is created on the bottom of the lake. It muddies the water as well. Before that it was a crystal clear water. Very beautiful but not much of an obstacle. The Rainbow cavefibian are happier thanks to the decomposing plant matter. The ones that got covered by the moss not so much. But looking at them I see that they have grown much bigger than I last checked. Level 6 Species: Rainbow cavefibian Mana: 12/12 Regen: 4 mana per/h Species traits: [amphibian], [rainbow skin], [lesser gigantism] [lesser gigantism]: This trait increases the size of this lifeform. +50% size, +50% mana, +50% mana regen, +50% health, +75% metabolism usage, -15% movement Some of them even have the [lesser gigantism] trait, the direct upgrade of [minor gigantism]. I immediately apply it to every possible lifeform in my floor that has the lesser version. Now even though these rainbow cavefibians are now over 1,5 meters long, they don¡¯t pose much of a threat. I gave them claws and sharp teeth. Before I gave them teeth they didn¡¯t have any. They just ate moss by sucking it off the ground. Then I made it so that the base size and with the trait that they grow up to around 2 meters long and half a meter high. Sadly I cannot make the base size too big without traits. Making creatures too big without the trait makes them overheat too much and their internals too weak. I tried making one really big over 6 meters. The creatures started overheating until its heart failed. It couldn¡¯t move either too. I would need better trait or better creature patterns to increase the size. The possibility of new creature types can randomly occur with my high mutation chance and the lightonium. For that to occur life needs to reproduce naturally so it will take time for that to occur. Then I focused on the [rainbow skin] trait. [rainbow skin] on its own is pretty lack luster for combat but looks very beautiful. I started tweaking the trait and by chance I found one variation that could work. [flashing rainbow skin] This trait gives a flashing rainbow skin, flashing blinding light of all sorts of colours. +25% find mate, -30% camouflage, +50% brightness The skin of the cavefibian now shines even brightly now. If you look form the top of the cliff through the steam you can see flashes of bright colour down below. This trait should give them an advantage on unsuspecting adventurers. This should be enough for now in the lower lake the adventurers will take a long time before they can go down the cliff. Now unto the last 2 the snakerat and snakemoss. These two shall become very stealthy in the moss. The only change I see in them is that the snakemoss has taken more visual traits of the radicave moss. Now let¡¯s chance the obvious trait first in the snakerat. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Level 5 Species: snakerat Mana: 12/12 Regen: 3 mana per/h Species traits [symbiosis] (snakemoss), [lesser gigantism], [cave vision] The snakerat was now over 3 meters long and 20 centimeter thick after increasing the base size with the trait. Its nubby feet given sharp ends for it needs to use it. I increased the size of the mouth and placed serated teeth in it. Before the change didn¡¯t had any teeth since it never had to feed, just drink trough their small mouth. The trait [cave vision] wouldn¡¯t really help them anymore for they live now in a very large cave. I know of some underground snakes that use tremors and some others have the ability to see heat. The heat one can be useful but most of them would be living on the higher part of the floor where there is a lot of heat. Let¡¯s try to get both. At first I tried to get a trait that detects tremors and movement. And after a few minor mistakes that didn¡¯t cost the lives of those snakerats I created a snakerat without eyes that has the [lesser tremor sense] trait. [lesser tremor sense] This trait gives the ability to detect tremors form a distance and know where they are. +50% tremor detection, +25% tremor detection range After a few attempts to get the heat version this time without snakerat death I created one that still has eyes and the [minor heat vision]. [minor heat vision] This trait gives the ability to see heat at a distance +25% heat vision, +12% heat vision range This trait is less effective than the [lesser tremor sense], but didn¡¯t come at the cost of the snakerats eyes. Now that I upgraded the snakerat it¡¯s the snakemoss¡¯s turn. Level 2 Species: snakemoss Mana: 0/0 Regen: 1 mana per/h Species traits [symbiosis] (snakerat), [extremely slow metabolism], [photosynthesis] I didn¡¯t need to change the [extremely slow metabolism] into [lesser gigantism] because the snakerat already had it. The snakerat itself is a bit slow even without the [lesser gigantism] slowing it down. Lest make it so that they don¡¯t need move fast by giving the snakemoss the ability to blend in with the radiacave moss. so I started making the snakemoss look even more like radiacave moss. After a few unfortunate accidents with the glowing radiacave I got what I wanted and more. One of the snakemoss got a trait called [lesser natural stealth] and another got [lesser radioactive boost]. [lesser natural stealth] This trait give the ability to blend in more in a natural environment. +50% natural stealth, -15% presence (natural) [lesser radioactive boost] (active trait) This trait give the ability to use radiation to boost the user at cost +50% strength, +25% movement, +12% radiation resistance The [lesser natural stealth] was the thing I was aiming for. Sneaky giant snakes. I do wonder what my creatures taste like, not including the radioactive ones for those could kill me. Maybe later I get a trait that lets me feel more I hope. The firebeetles would totally be spicy, but their resistance to fire would mean that they would be very difficult to cook. Anyway enough dawdling. The [lesser radioactive boost] is one of the rarer traits that have a (active) state. For this trait it makes sense. The snakerats that use it for too long begin to ¡°cook¡± themselfs form the inside out. If they keep going they start to burn as well and then they die. Even if they use it for a shorter amount of time the radiations damages them. The snakemoss on the snakerat begins to glow blue if they activate it. Otherwise the moss is an off green like colour. Totally the opposite of what I wanted but a good mutation nonetheless. I begin to place the [lesser tremor sense] versions with both types of snakemoss on the higher side of the floor. And all 4 versions after the lower lake. After the lower lake the temperature is more stable. The temperature of the floor is around 35¡ãC on the higher part and drops to 25¡ãC after the lower lake. The boiling lake generates enough steam that it practically permanently rains on the lower lake and boiling lake. The temperature and humidity is another thing to slow down the adventurers. The lake is slowly starting to decrease in size. Let¡¯s create a giant water source crystal on the roof for water to stream down to the boiling lake. I should also make this water near boiling for. Now that the dangers are created lets create treasures. While the glowing radiacavemoss and fire-red kelp are very good treasures. I think that there needs to be more treasures that need mining. So I can see how people mine and suffer like I did. So let¡¯s see what I can create. Let¡¯s put some quartz source crystals a kilometer in the floor. It¡¯s not worth much but can be used for some magic. I think that the shamans use them for temporary mana storage. Because they kept asking for more, like they would break or something. Now let¡¯s be devious and put a big gold source crystal all the way on the roof just after the cliff. If they can see it through the steam, climb there, brave the lightonium and bring it back then they deserve it. And then lets create a space behind the waterfall in the middle of the fall. The entrance to the space is only 1 meter wide and the space itself is 5 by 6 by 10 meters big. In that space I created a few small gem source crystals. Emerald, ruby and my favourite lapis lazuli. The small size means it will take some time to grow and regrow if they are found. Then I added some copper, iron and magnesium ore veins. These I scattered all around the cliff decently big but not too big so they regrow fully once a week or so. And then finally I placed a large iron ore source crystals 2 kilometres past the lower lake. The vein created a place where the radiacave moss grew slower or didn¡¯t. This may cause some mutations later. Now now now what shall add more. Adding traps would be a bit overkill and useless with this much open space. Also the high temperature, humidity, boiling water, and cliff would be hazardous enough. Oh! I have an idea. Let¡¯s add a giant statue of myself near the entrance with horns of lapis lazuli! That will be a good addition to the dungeon. Bigger than the biggest dragon. {The scouting team} A group of 4 people a male fox-kin wearing safari clothes and a pair of round glasses, a female skink-kin draped in a dark purple robe, a quarter-dragon in minimal clothes with two giant claymores and a small blue male felinid carrying a big backpack probably filled with books. The fox-kin looks around ¡°ah the fresh smell of mountains always good on the body¡± The felinid responses ¡°what you are smelling is probably the droppings of a lure-vulture. It smell nice to attract creatures who then might eat it and die from eating it.¡± The fox-kin visibly retches ¡°ah can¡¯t be all good can it the fresh smell of the mountain¡± The skink-kin stops and points toward a now very visible very large hole ¡°there, is that what we are looking for? A giant hole that might be the entrance to the dungeon.¡± The quarter-dragon looks at the hole ¡°that might be it yeah¡± The four of them go to the giant hole in the side of the mountain. ¡°can¡¯t believe we didn¡¯t see this kilometres away¡± the fox-kin says looking into the dungeon entrance. ¡°let¡¯s go in, Vinella can you cast slowfall on us these steps are mighty tall.¡± The Fox-kin says to the skink-kin. ¡°yes I can do that, but it won¡¯t last long¡± the four of them descend into the dungeon and the first thing they see is a giant kobold statue. chapter 6 {the dungeon core} That¡¯s not fair they skipped my very large stair they just floated down. With that kind of magic it might be possible to float down the cliff to the lower lake. I need to create a flying creature that can attack adventures when they fly or float. Now let¡¯s see if they have brought any unsuspecting lifeforms in my dungeon. Now this is interesting and annoying I can¡¯t seem to manipulate my dungeon around them. Sapient creatures must have some protection. So is seems that I can¡¯t make a giant hole beneath them or create life directly next to them. Not that it matters much can drop a boulder from 100 high unto them or create creatures further away to attack them. The protection also prevents me from inspecting them and other life they may be harboring. Fortunately the possible dragon descendant had some dirt fall of his shoes after he landed at the bottom of the stairs. Let¡¯s see what life in that small clump may be, after they moved away enough. In that little clump I could only see 2 lifeforms, both plants. Level 1 Species: mountain fern Mana: 0/0 Regen: 4 mana per/day Species traits [minor resilience], [lesser cold resistance], [photosynthesis] Level 2 Species: lighting skyalgea Mana: 1/1 Regen: 12 mana per/day Species traits [lesser buoyant] (air), [lesser electro-synthesis], [photosynthesis] [minor resilience] This trait gives the ability to resist non-magical damage. +25% resistance. [lesser cold resistance] This trait gives the ability to resist cold. +50% cold resistance. [lesser buoyant] (air) This trait gives the ability to stay buoyant in said medium (air) +50% buoyancy (air) [lesser electro-synthesis] This trait automatically turn excess mana into electricity. +50% electricity from mana, +25% lighting resistance The traits from the fern are to be expected form a mountain plant low temperatures and harsh weather forced the plant to be more resilient. It is nice to get more ground flora. I only need more of a tree like plant or change the rootgrove into a more tree like structure. Then we have the lighting skyalgae. A plant I have heard about. Story¡¯s tell that if the clouds turn green you should seek immediately shelter. For the lighting storm that may follow will be devastating. There was a city trying to harness the power of these algae. They made the clouds above their city hold many lightning skyalgae to power their magical devises. Unfortunately the city had been reduced to rubble after a massive storm made the already massive population grow even bigger. The amount of lighting build up and a person who was far away from the city saw a giant lightning bolt strike down unto the city. After the person arrived to the city a giant crater was all that¡¯s left of the city. So now its forbidden to go grow the algae that much. The lighting skyalgae fits pretty well with this floor with its already pouring rain. So I shall add them in the steam cloud up above. Now hoping that the algae will survive the heat and radiation. While the trait [lesser buoyant] (air) could fix the possible flying adventurer problem. The trait doesn¡¯t let the creature that uses the trait fly around just float in the air. The firebeetles do have remnants of wings. They can probably move around while floating after I remake their wing. Flying bugs that spew fire now that¡¯s fun! An the other use the trait might have is making the rootgrove float. Then together with the [insoculation] trait to create a giant mess of roots and branches. That would make the lower lake much more dense and fun to traverse. Now that is for later let¡¯s see what those four adventures are doing. Hopefully they don¡¯t die to my snakes that would be a shame. {The scouting party} The four of them stand before a giant kobold statue. Alfred the fox-kin looks up at the statue ¡°It would seem that the core of this dungeon is probably a kobold. Unless you guys think otherwise?¡±. Giri the quatre-dragon and Vinella shake their heads, after which Giri starts looking around again to spot danger. Ichthy the felinid sets down her giant backpack and grabs a book. He opens the book on which nothing is written in. Then he grabs a pencil and starts sketching the entrance of the dungeon. Giri looking around the massive cave ¡°They said it was going to be a giant dungeon, but this big. I have never seen a cave this big before. Not ever my grandma¡¯s cave is this big.¡± Alfred nods ¡°That¡¯s why they send me with the scouting party for they expected big monsters¡± Alfred grabs his big hunting rifle and shows it off. Giri scoffs at him ¡®show off¡¯. ¡°Hey, Ichthy are you almost done for this part of the dungeon I see some movement in the distance.¡± Asks Vinella while pointing in a certain direction. ¡°Yeah almost done¡± Ichthy says as he packs his book back into his backpack. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. In the distance they see a long green snake like creature slithering slowly towards them. Alfred points his hunting rifle towards the creature. The gun itself begins to glow blue with mana and electric arcs. Then Alfred shoots at the creature that now withing 50 meters is. The shot itself hits the creature directly tearing a hole directly through the body of the snake the bullet even goes into the floor. ¡°That creature doesn¡¯t have much resilience¡± Alfred said while reloading. Ichthy look up to Alfred ¡°We still need to see how powerful these creatures are, not obliterate them.¡± The four of them walk to the corpse of the snake creature. The snake is over 4 meters long covered in moss. Giri pokes the snake with one his swords ¡°Is the moss part of the snake, or just growing on it. Also this snake has legs, look.¡± Giri grabs a leg and shows the sharp claws attached to it. Ichthy sets his glasses right ¡°This snake is two creatures. A moss called snakemoss and the snake itself a snakerat. The rat part probably gave the snake legs, or the dungeon gave a snake legs.¡± As they were inspecting the snakerat it began to rain. The rain they felt was warmer than any of them knew. Vinella drenched in her robe ¡°The environment of this dungeon is a hazard on its own. High temperature, rain and the air is different. It feels as if the air is heavier and more reactive.¡± Vinella shakes her head ¡°But that is for the research guild to figure out.¡± While the rest of the group was inspecting the snakerat Alfred started looking around ¡°This place is truly massive. Hey Ichthy what are those crystals and glowing bits of roof?¡± Ichthy looks up to the crystals ¡°Those are source crystals, the crystals produce resources or other stuff like these ones producing light. As for the glowing bit of roof that could be either magical ore or lightonium ore. Can¡¯t be certain my inspection trait does not work that far.¡± Ichthy looks back down again ¡°If it is lightonium we shouldn¡¯t get close to it, it might poison you.¡± Giri ¡°Source crystal this early? Normally dungeons only get that past the 5th floor. This dungeon will be a good resource farm then.¡± Giri also looks up to the crystals and points towards a red glimmer in the steam ¡°I think that¡¯s where the water is coming from. Very hot it seems.¡± After they take some samples of the snakerat they go towards the side of the dungeon towards the tree like plants. While they were walking towards the wall they got jumped by two sneaky snakerats. Ichthy quickly hid away from the monsters and Giri drew his weapons going after the one near ichthy. Vinella prepared a fireball and threw it behind the second snakerat. The explosion threw the 4 meter long snake over Vinella. Alfred surprised by the big explosion hastily jumped away from the flying snake stumbling into the moss. The snake lay unresponsive on the ground burning. Giri on the other hand tested the snake. Checking for weaknesses and attack patterns. ¡®hmm the snake favor to coil around their prey, then biting and scratching the prey when hold.¡¯ After a few doges and prods form Giri he lobbed the head off the snake. ¡°These snakes look a little different for they have no eyes. Also the moss on these ones is more in line with the moss on the ground compared with the other one¡± Ichthy looks at the dead snakes ¡°While my trait doesn¡¯t say that they are different creates the are indeed different¡± Vinella looks at the burning snake and the spot where the fireball landed ¡°It seems that I was right with that the air is more reactive. Normally the fire from the fireball should be stopped by now even more because of this rain.¡± They take a few samples from these snakes as well after putting out the fires and continue their walk to the wall. 15 minutes later they arrive at the wall covered by big root like trees. Ichthy touches one of them ¡°These plants are rootgrove, very common in the underground. Normally they wouldn¡¯t grow this big, but so far only the moss is not big.¡± Alfred looking at the roots as well ¡°Are they worth anything? Useful to harvest?¡± ¡°No, not really the only use these plants have is that it is decent wood especially of this size.¡± Vinella pointing past the rootgrove ¡°Those crystals behind them might be worth something. Those crystals are quartz right?¡± Giri nodding ¡°Those should be indeed quartz crystals. Let¡¯s see the quality of them¡± The group walks though the thick rootgrove branches until they come to the crystals. The quartz crystals where of pristine quality growing up wards of 5 meters tall and 2 meters at the widest. Alfred whistling as he touches one of those crystals ¡°Crystals this big should sell for a big penny, sadly we cannot bring them with us. Too big and too difficult to bring them up the giant stairs of the entrance.¡± While that Ichthy grabbed some quartz samples Giri and Alfred pocketed some of the smaller crystals. They moved deeper into the floor until they reach a giant waterfall pouring in from the ceiling. Giri points towards the now more clear giant red source crystal ¡°Seems I was right this crystal produces most of the water here.¡± They pass the waterfall sticking to the right side of the river that the waterfall was producing. The river itself was around a kilometer wide, but not very deep only around 5 meters at its deepest. The river itself was also steaming, but cold enough that you wouldn¡¯t burn yourself. The source crystal was 4 kilometers high after all a lot of heat gets dissipated into the air. The party looked into the river to see only a red kelp was growing inside of it. The kelp mostly stuck to the middle of the river where it was the deepest. So they checked again to see if anything else lived in the river but they found nothing. Giri then removed his already scares clothes to swim in the river to grab a piece of kelp for Ichthy. After giving Ichthy the piece of kelp he had wide eyes looking at the kelp ¡°T-this kelp has a fire affinity.¡± Alfred looked at the kelp ¡°Well, let¡¯s grab some more of it. We will be rich if we bring this to the town.¡± The soaking wet Vinella looked at Alfred ¡°Alfred, we still have a dungeon to explore, but on the way back we can bring some. Not now.¡± After reassuring Alfred they followed the river downstream. A few snakerats here and there attacked them, but this time they were prepared. Except when one of them started glowing blue greatly increasing the speed and strength of the snake. It caught Giri off guard and took a swipe from the snakerat. Giving him a small gash on his side. The snakerat then got killed by Vinella who threw a magical ice dart at the snakes head impaling it. Then after a hour of just walking and battling they started to see the boiling lake. The lake over 4 kilometers wide only giver 500 meter between the lake and the wall. The lake itself was over 8 kilometers long. The lake itself had a red colour form all the kelp in it. And they saw a few red beetle like creatures. The beetles where 2 meters long and a meter wide and tall. The group saw that the bugs where spewing fire at the water with the highest concentration of fire-red kelp. Not wanting to get burned by the bugs for the flames reaches over 5 meters far. The group stalked trough the rootgrove on the wall getting past the bugs. While they were stalking Alfred made a note that the lake just suddenly ended. As if there was a giant drop at the end of it. And Alfred was right after they stalked trough the rootgrove for a few hours they arrived at the cliff. The cliff obscured by steam, mist and rain. They couldn¡¯t see the bottom of the cliff until the rain subsided for a minute letting them barely see the bottom. At the bottom was a large amount of rootgrove and Vinella could swear that there were some colourful flashes down there. Near the edge of the cliff they found a piece of rock that sheltered them form the now returned rain and rested for a few hours. Then they went back to the entrance of the dungeon bringing as much fire-red kelp as they could. Then at the stairs Vinella casted some spell that made them very light and jumped out of the dungeon. chapter 7 {The dungeon core} That was interesting. That scouting group was probably a high ranking one. Reaching the 3rd evolution even, maybe even higher. That would mean that they are over lvl 60 far above the average lvl of this floor. Surprisingly they stayed away from the firebeetles. The skink-kin one Vinella did say that the air is more reactive and then throwing a fireball that exploded very big. The fire from that blast was even burning in the pouring rain. Ah what it might be are the placed oxygen source crystals. Now that I think of it some of my pyromaniac clutch sisters did say that fire burns hotter and stronger when there is fresh air. And fire doesn¡¯t burn in bad air. The air you can¡¯t breath or you will fall asleep permanently. Well it makes the firebeetles a bit more scary while I do think that they would be able to fight a few and win. Sadly I couldn¡¯t see them fight. But while they where near the quartz vein I did notice that my reverence of size was a bit off. I thought I made the max a half a meter but they grew ten times the size that. Now let¡¯s incorporate the new flora I got and use the traits on my other lifeforms. I began by modifying the ferns. They don¡¯t need [lesser cold resistance] so that gets replaced by [lesser gigantism] making the ferns grow over 2 meters tall. Then I placed them all over the floor except near the lake where the ferns died because of the heat. While having normal large ferns is nice having a few special ones is even better. So I made a few ferns blue in colour and removed the [minor resilience] for [lesser electro-synthesis]. Now in the fern filled moss field there are crackling plant that emit electric discharges form time to time. I also placed some of the ferns in the lower lake in the rootgrove. The ones I placed where mostly the electric versions creating a even more colourfull forest. Green, blue, brown and the rainbow colours of the cavefibians. About electricity, the lightning skyalgae are getting large enough to start producing the first lighting strikes. Most of them are just arching towards the roof hitting the source crystals there. The skyalgae didn¡¯t need any changes. Using [lesser gigantism] on the algae wouldn¡¯t really work for if they became 50% bigger they would still be very tiny. Although it would make the lighting production bigger, but alas I would either need to use mana to sustain them or they wouldn¡¯t float in the air. While it would be funny to electrically charge the lower lake I will probably not use it until later floors. Now [lesser buoyant] (air) tinkering with this trait shall be fun. The possibilities of this trait are very fun. I began by creating a few firebeetles with this trait in stead of the [heat resistance] trait. The bugs won¡¯t need it since they will be floating around in the air decently far away from the burning lake. The newly created bugs started to float until they were a kilometer high. They were just floating in the air unable to move much. Now lets mutate their wings back. Trough a few iterations where a few flew into the walls, floor and roof a new flying firebeetle got created. I moved them to the cliff where they will float around the waterfall of the cliff. I made them so that they won¡¯t attack adventures when they are climbing down the cliff, but they will attack any other flying creature. Now what would happen if someone where to just jump off it. That person if they survived crashing into water at that speed would probably still be flamed unless they are in the waterfall. Then the lower lake rootgrove. I created a version with [lesser buoyant] (air) instead of [photosynthesis]. I placed them at the top of the already living rootgrove. Making it so that the normal rootgrove could grow even higher by fusing with the floating ones. And the floating ones didn¡¯t need to eat because they get the food from the normal ones. The floating rootgrove did have white leaves since it didn¡¯t have [photosynthesis]. A peculiar sight that is. I made more rootgrove letting them grow even higher. After I was done creating more the rootgrove forest wat over 500 meters tall. A thick branching maze of roots. For I found it funny that someone might jump down the entire cliff a 800 meter wide gap that tapered off downstream was created without any rootgrove. I made the Water there deeper 40 meters to be exact. And to make it ever better I made a few oxygen producing source crystals embedded at the bottom. Making it so a lot of bubbles where in that gap breaking the fall even more. After all of that a day has passed. I peaked outside my entrance to see where the expedition is. And they were there near the bottom of the valley. It seems that they created a camp of sorts. It is reasonable to assume that this is going the be a outpost. For traders to come by and adventures to rest. While I think after a good road is build this outpost wouldn¡¯t really become big. It is only a 6 hour walk to the dungeon then. Without a road a day or 2. But 6 hours isn¡¯t that much I think. I traveled 7 hours to go to the mine where quartz crystals where when I still was a kobold. The adventurers guild always brings some interesting creatures and flora to dungeons. Some of the traders at my old warren said that in one case a guild master brought a life 5th evolution drake into a dungeon. For the chance that the dungeons spawned more. So that the guild master could fight more of them! This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. The other two guilds also bring some flora and fauna. The research guild mostly brings rare and almost extinct flora and fauna. To preserve those and study them in the dungeon, although most of those do get mutated by dungeons. Most dungeons don¡¯t have a sapient as the core after all. And then we have the acquisition guild. Where the most greedy of them are. Just like the other two they also give flora and fauna, but these lifeforms have a lot of value. They sometimes even force a dungeon to create those things. Luckily the adventurers guild most of the time steps in if they start doing that. I won¡¯t really have problems with that guild the fire-red kelp, crystals and ores shall satiate them. Maybe even too much. {the adventurers guild tent} The admiral looks at the four people in front of him, the scouting group. ¡°So, what did you guys find and what lvl Is this dungeon?¡± Ichthy grabbing his book opening it and showing it to the Admiral¡¯ ¡°Heres a map of what we discovered so far. The dungeon was far bigger than any of us thought it would be.¡± ¡°I have drawn every creature and plant as well, just rough sketches¡± The Admiral picks the book up and takes his time looking at the map an the drawn flora and fauna. ¡°Why is there a giant kobold statue near the entrance and why is it over 500 meters tall¡± Vinella sits a bit more upright now in a dry robe. ¡°I suspect that the cores intelligence is a kobold. Only those of draconic descent would build a statue of themselves this early. Pride and all.¡± ¡°Or the core just got bored¡± The admiral closes the book and pushes it back towards Ichthy. ¡°So, we have a sapient dungeon at our hands. That¡¯s good. So long nobody pisses them off.¡± ¡°But back to my question, Giri what level would you put this floor at?¡± ¡°well Admiral the floor would be mid to high 0 rank, but with the environment without good prepared equipment I would put it at low tier 1. Ones that had time to learn and adapt after their first evolution.¡± ¡°That pretty high Giri, for the 1st floor of a dungeon. And I have read as well that you didn¡¯t fight one of the creatures right? The firebeetles?¡± ¡°Yes that¡¯s true, we didn¡¯t fight those because we didn¡¯t had any fire resistance clothes or potions. And fire burned stronger than normal. Ichthy you did you put that in the book right?¡± Ichthy nods. ¡°Well the acquisition guild and potion guild will both be happy about this. More for them to sell fire proof clothes and fire resistance potions.¡± Sayed the Admiral with a hearty laugh. ¡°Now then Ichthy ones you go the research guild make a copy of what you¡¯ve found an give a copy to me and the acquisition guild master. That¡¯s all go take a break and don¡¯t forget to visit the healers for hidden damage.¡± The four of them got out of the tent and either went to their tent of guild to either rest or relay information. The Admiral then asked for the other two guild master to come to his tent. The research guild master came immediately, but the acquisition guild master came what later. ¡°Ah were alle here now, let me explain what the scouting team has found. ¡° The admiral first tells them that the dungeon is over 5 kilometers wide possibly taler than wide and an unknown amount of depth. The acquisition guild master laughed when he heard about the giant kobold statue that had horns made of pure lapis lazuli. Then he talked about the flora found in the dungeon. The peculiar size of everything got the purple kobold interested even more when the admiral spoke about the blue glowing moss on the roof of the dungeon. When the Admiral spoke of the fire-red kelp the orange cat-kin didn¡¯t respond for he already knew of it. The scouting team had indeed sold it to the acquisition guild after all. Then unto the creatures all three of them agreed that the glowing snake wouldn¡¯t be brought outside for the lingering radiation might bring problems. The non glowing version was allowed. Both the kobold and cat-kin were upset that there was no samples from the firebeetles. Then he began to speak of the minerals and ores found in the dungeon both surprise to learn that this dungeon already had source crystals. ¡°That¡¯s good to hear that this dungeon already has source crystals there could be more ore/mineral deposits. Although if any is found past the cliff the logistics to get it back would be difficult. Even the large quartz crystals will be annoying to move can¡¯t bring weak people they might die by monster while transporting it,¡± The cat-kin said thinking very hard. ¡°Now since I have filled you in what are your guild going to bring into the dungeon. The adventurers guild is bringing ironwood seeds, a lesser drakeling and a frost shrimp freshly caught¡± ¡°The research guild will be bringing a old skeleton that looks like an old ancestor to birds but without wings. The guild will also bring greater marsh leeches, the draining of the marsh is limiting their living area.¡± ¡°The acquisition guild shall bring metal-flowers, water-hyacinths, fire-roses and a basalt badger. Hopefully giving us the resources to make fire resistant clothes and the roses hopefully have a higher fire affinity than the kelp.¡± The guild masters exchanged some pleasantries and information and then left to their own tents again. chapter 8 {The dungeon core} As I was watching the campsite a group of people started going towards my entrance. A decent part of the camp that is. The main group of explorers I think. Hopefully they have brought some interesting flora and fauna for me to use. While I was watching them move to the entrance I recognized one of them the felinid that was in the scouting team. It seems he is part of the research guild. He seems eager to enter again going back so fast with little rest. I mean he didn¡¯t fight so had less rest needed. Then they came to a halt when they arrived to my entrance. 4 meter steps do that. A few of the crafty people in the group brought some ladders or build ones out of logs. And after a hour of building an going down they were finally in the dungeon. The giant staircase was worth it a gnome fell down one ladder, if I could I would totally be laughing out loud. They brought several crates and placed them of to the side and then they walked away. It seems that these are the ¡°gifts¡± what shall it be. When they were far away enough I looked inside and interesting these gifts were. Several flowers, frozen hovering shrimp?, seeds maybe from a tree can be sure, leeches¡­ why would they give me leeches if they knew I am going to use them. Oh interesting a lesser dragon can definitely do something with those, a stone badger? Devious creatures willing to fight things way bigger than it. Finally we have a skeleton, would my powers even work on that? So far it only worked on living things. Level 3 Species: metal-flower Mana: 0/(depends on metal) Regen: (depends on metal) mana per/? Species traits [minor metal affinity], [metal mana absorption], [ferrophage] [minor metal affinity]: This trait gives an increased amount of affinity to metal +25% metal affinity [metal mana absorption] This trait gives the ability to absorb metal mana and grow that metal +50% metal mana absorption, +25% metal production [ferrophage] This trait gives the ability to eat metal for nutrients +25% nutrients from metal (depends on metal) Level 3 Species: fire-rose Mana: 8/8 Regen: 2 mana per/h Species traits [fire affinity], [lesser fire mana heart], [manaphage] [fire affinity] This trait gives an increased amount of affinity to fire +100% fire affinity (this effect applies to all ¡°fire¡± traits) [lesser fire-mana heart] This trait converts excess mana into fire mana +50% mana conversion (fire) [manaphage] This trait gives the ability to eat mana +25% nutrients from mana Level 3 Species: water-hyacinth Mana: 18/18 Regen: 1 mana per/h Species traits [water affinity], [lesser water mana heart], [manaphage] [water affinity] This trait gives an increased amount of affinity to water +100% water affinity (this effect applies to all ¡°water¡± traits) [lesser water-mana heart] This trait converts excess mana into water mana +50% mana conversion (water) Level 1 Species: Ironwood tree Mana: 0/500 Regen: 50 mana per/h Species traits [iron skin], [iron infusion], [ferrophage] [iron skin] This trait gives the user a skin of literal iron +250% resilience (¡°skin¡±), -50% movement [iron infusion] This trait gives the ability to absorb iron from the ground and infuse it into your body can use mana to create iron +100% resilience, +25% iron production Lvl 9 Lesser drakeling Mana: 45/80 Regen: 19 mana per/h Species traits [minor dwarfism], [mana heart], [lesser dragon scales] [minor dwarfism] This trait makes the user grow smaller than average -25% size, +25% mana usage, +25% metabolism efficiency, +30% movement This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. [mana heart] This trait gives increased mana production and releases more mana +100% mana production, +50% released mana, +12% maximum mana [lesser dragon scales] This trait gives scales of a (lesser) dragon +50% resilience, +25% fire resistance, 12% magic resistance DWARFISM!!!! This poor creature forced to stay small I shall create brothers and sisters that shall tower. Evil dwarfism, but only after I checked the last 2 creatures well one creature since one of them is a skeleton. Lvl 4 basalt badger Mana: 8/8 Regen: 4 mana per/h Species traits [greater fire resistance], [basalt skin], [lesser resilience] [greater heat resistance] This trait gives the ability to greatly resist heat +200% resistance (heat) [basalt skin] This trait gives the user a ¡°skin¡± of basalt +100% resilience (skin), +50% fire resistance, +50% weight, -45% movement [lesser resilience] +50% resilience Now we finally have the mystery skeleton. What shall it be it looks like a more lean drake or maybe like a big bird. But alas I haven¡¯t seen a bird. Only some bats. I really should look more outside to see what life there is. Lvl N/A Greater raptor Mana: (who knows) Regen: ?? mana per/? Species traits [lesser reflexes], [lesser intelligence], [N/A] [lesser reflexes] This trait improves the reflexes of the user +50% reflex speed, +10% dexterity [lesser intelligence] This trait improves the intelligence of the user +50% cognition, +10% intelligence It seems that I indeed can recover some information from skeletons, but not everything. A trait got lost degraded over time. Then we have the [lesser intelligence] trait this means this species of creature was turning into a sapient. Or had the possibility to do so. After I inspected everything a few minutes had passed the guilds get my attention. A large human with scars step forward. ¡°Greetings dungeon, if you are indeed sapient show us a sign. If not well you are probably not going to do anything.¡± I create a smaller kobold statue only 50 meters tall pretty close to them. ¡°That would be a sign. I have brought a contract in short the contract means that you don¡¯t try to kill everyone who enters, send monsters out without a guilds permission in return we the adventurers guild will protect you. Although the contract can only be signed by your actual core. So if I may have permission can I and a small group go un-attacked to your core to sign the contract and leave?¡± I create a even smaller kobold 10 meters tall with a thumbs up. These contracts mostly mean that other governing bodies can¡¯t claim me for personal use. They did leave a copy of the contract in the crates for me to read, but I will read the actual contract when they arrive to my core. But before they arrive at my core it may be some days past. Unless they just jump off the cliff then they might arrive in 1 to 2 days? Even then they still need to go through the lower groveroot forest. Let¡¯s get started with using these new flora and fauna. The ironwood trees interest me the most because their unmodified maximum height can be increased a lot thanks to iron infusion. Unfortunately I had to change one of the traits to [lesser gigantism]. Either [ferrophage] or [iron skin]. The main problem removing a trait that lets the lifeform ¡°eat¡¯ something is that then I have to pay mana to sustain them. While my mana production is very high I am not sure if I can sustain such large giants of trees. Wait didn¡¯t the drakeling have [mana heart]? I can maybe create a plant that can produce a lot of mana and be small in size. But where am I going to put them. I guess next to the ironwood trees, but them they would be very much in the open. I can always move them later if adventurers start removing it by the million. Now what plant shall I use that is small. Ah I know the skyalgae! If I remove the ability to fly gave it [mana heart] and try to mutate the [lesser electro-synthesis] into something more pure mana related. The only thing is that the algae need a lot of water that is not moving fast. So after 10 kilometers past the lower lake I created stepped pools of water. Replicating the ones I saw in caves including the white colour of calcium. In caves they would only go wide as 5 meters and 2 meters long, but here they are hundreds of meters wide and up to a hundred meters long. Creating a gradual decent. Now lets get to mutating. I put in a few spots small lightonium ores to increase the mutation chance. Then I put the modified skyalgae in the pools to begin mutating them. At first most of the mutations gave me worse versions of the traits I already got then a few more interesting ones appeared. [lesser mana emitter] This trait increases the amount of mana emitted and multiplies it +50% released mana, +25% magic resistance [mana liquidation] This trait lets excess mana be turned into liquid form +100% liquid mana production, +50% mana resistance [lesser electrical instability] This trait makes the user instable and electrically explodes on contact +50% electricity, +25% explosion radius These three traits are interesting 2 of them are very good and the other is well explosive. I tested a few algae with the trait by throwing a snakerat in the pool. There was only bones left and a lot of small pieces of meat in other pools. The electricity stuns the creature and then more than tens of thousands algae fry and explode the creature. Downside all of the algae is gone now any movement can just trigger all algae creating a blast. Then we have the two mana traits the [lesser mana emitter] trait was kind of what I was looking for more mana production. And then we have [mana liquidation] a trait that produces liquid mana very interesting, but it doesn¡¯t give me more mana. The adventurers will love to find liquid mana, great for spell casters and alchemist. So I made smaller pools around 30 by 30 centimeters and spread them around the pools where some got the explody algae and some got the liquid mana algae. Then I spread across all the other pools the mana production algae. The [lesser mana emitter] makes the algae glow a little blue. So the pools themselves glow blue. When I was done with the mutations the large human with scars was nearly at the cliff. Interested by how they are going to go down the cliff I watched them. The group all grabbed a potion from I assume a alchemist and drank it. Then they jumped down the cliff. Very slowly falling. At the speed they are going it would take around a hour to reach the water or a little less if they land in the rootgrove. Taking my attention away from the group I started modifying the ironwood to get an even larger base size. I planted a few ironwoods where I replaced the [ferrophage] with [lesser gigantism]. surprisingly one grew way bigger than the rest. Oh! Great this one has [Gigantism]. [gigantism]: This trait increases the size of this lifeform. +100% size, +100% mana, +100% mana regen, +100% health, +150%% metabolism usage, -20% movement Each ironwood tree now has over 1000 mana maximum and 100 mana per/h. While the production is nothing compared to the mana algae total it is still impressive. Now time to change every creature below lvl 10 with [lesser gigantism] to [gigantism]. so everything will become even bigger than before. I started creating ironwoods between the lower lake and the algae pools. The trees grew until they reached the ceiling over 6 kilometers tall. And the base of each tree was 1 kilometer in diameter tapering off towards the top where the trees still were over 200 meters thick at the ceiling. The trees were placed near the iron ore veins. I placed a few more normal sized one that were only 300 meters tall and 25 to 35 meters thick. Between the trees I places metal flowers for the iron theme. And for now I placed a decent amount of basalt badgers but with [iron skin] instead of [basalt skin] and [gigantism] instead of [greater fire resistance]. I called them iron badgers, tough little fellas. Oh wait tough big fellas. The badgers with these traits were 5 meters long and 2 meters tall, pretty big indeed. Looking at the party that is going to my core one of them had died by drowning. It seems that my bubbles near the waterfall made it so that you cant really swim. Too many bubbles and the waterfall as well pulling you deeper. I made the bubble production a decent amount less, so people don¡¯t drown. And the party seems to have taken rest in a dense part of rootgrove. They seem to do a ritual on the dead guy. A funeral rite maybe? The dead person started glowing the persons blue lips slowly started turning pink again. Then the person puked a lot of water and was alive again. Damn these guilders don¡¯t spare any expenses a ritual like that costs a lot of gold. It seems that they are going to camp in there. Probably for the guy who drowned. Luckily for the guy one of them was a semi-aquatic kin. Though I have never seen one of those, he looks like a crab? I am uncertain I can ask when they arrive after all. chapter 9 {The dungeon core} I have almost completed this floor. The only part that I am missing is the last part of my floor a kilometer only filled with moss an a few big ferns here and there. The stepped pools combine again into a river now shining blue form the algae. Lets use the last plants they gifted me. I made the river wide, slow and shallow. By this point the river has cooled down that it is now cool to the touch and flows towards me. Next to my core all the water that make it gets removed by a source crystal that somehow removes water. The plants that I got the fire-rose and water-hyacinth. If I just planted them everywhere it would not be fun. So I modified them by the only way I know. By chucking highly radioactive substances where they grow. I selected them with the intent of confusing and annoying adventurers trying to find the flowers with actual affinity. [lesser illusion affinity] This trait gives an increased amount of affinity to illusions. +50% illusion affinity [minor vexing pollen] This trait gives the ability to releases pollen that subtly confuses and irritates creatures +25% confusion, +12% auditory distortion [lesser predatory instinct] This trait enhances the ability to detect and react to movement +50% reaction speed (prey), +25% accuracy (prey) [lesser radiation scarring] This trait gives more mutation chance at a cost +50% mutation instability, -25% health Four traits that¡¯s nice. But what¡¯s with [lesser predatory instinct]. A voracious plant. What is it going to hunt? Dirt? Sunlight?!. And then we have [lesser radiation scarring] while it gives more mutation chance they are more unstable and negative. -25% health on top of it almost anything with this trait wont live long. Luckily the 2 other traits are good. [lesser illusion affinity] another affinity to add to my collection. Then we have 3 plants with affinities in the field. And finally [minor vexing pollen] the thing I was looking for. An entire field filled with flowers with this trait. That would certainly annoy any adventurer without a mask. The flowers that got mutated by the radiation and my powers have gotten also very strange. The colours of the flowers are very varied, but still similar to what they were before. The fire-roses have now orange, pink, white and many more. The same happened to the blue water-hyacinth. Although I have now many coloured flowers I just kept the original shape and colours of the flowers. I then placed the normal rose and hyacinth unmodified scarce throughout the field. I did the same with the illusion affinity flower. The illusion flower is purple. The flower looks like many small rose flowers tightly packed in a sort of sphere on top of the stem. The flower itself becomes illusory hiding itself. But it does so pretty bad. Then I modified all three of the flowers replacing the elemental mana heart or other trait with [Gigantism]. with a bit of tinkering I made all of the flowers around 4 meters tall, since the roses are bushes they grew bigger than the other two. So the enlargement of the flowers is bigger with the hyacinth and illusion flower. The flower tops of those two are the size of kobolds! About a meter wide. The roses are a bit smaller only 20-30 centimeters wide, but a large thorny bush instead. Then I created the [minor vexing pollen] flower filling every available spot. Only one in 100 is a affinity flower. Now that I think about it the guild leader of the acquisition guild probably wanted me to upgrade the fire-red kelp from [lesser fire affinity] to [fire affinity]. Well if they wanted better affinity plants or creatures they must go deeper. Now the only thing this region needs is creatures. Well what shall I use. The leaches, nah river is big but too open. Already used badger, so only two left the raptor or lesser drakeling. The drakeling would be too big after I sized him up. A large creature towering over the flowers. Hmm maybe just one then and several raptors. I of course gave the singular drakeling [Gigantism] making the drake 8 meter tall 19 meters long and 3 kobold laying on the ground wide. She has big red scales a pretty stubby tail only 4 meters long, a big jaw for eating adventurers and 2 big blue horns pointing backwards. The adventurers can go play hide and seek with her. The raptors while I have their pattern I have no idea how they look like. I created a male and female version. The male was a bit more colorful having bright blue and green feathers and a few big ones on his head. The female colors where more camouflaging greens and browns. Both had a beak with sharp teeth standing on two strong back legs. Their arms where less muscled than I thought bit way more flexible and manipulative. But both the arms and legs ended with big sharp claws, although on the hands just one big claw and 3 smaller. The female was a decent amount bigger 30 centimeters bigger than the male. The male was around 120 centimeters tall if his head was aligned with his tail. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Now lets modify them, in the empty spot [Gigantism] goes without saying. Then do I want to keep any of the other two. The intelligence one will be useful then the raptors can work together better. The reflex one should I keep it for the speed or change it for resistance, magic or strength. Checking in my list of traits it would seem that I don¡¯t have many strength increasing traits. Most of them are either affinity, resistance/resilience and mana traits. The only one I have is [lesser radioactive boost], but that one comes at a steep price for the creature. And it doesn¡¯t fit this area. Then I remember that some of my snakes have [lesser natural stealth]. With the thick thicket it will work well. Now this region Is finished I call this region The whispering field. While I can¡¯t be affected by the spores I do wonder what people hear. Whispers? or maybe enemies charging them? It will be fun to see them get confused and struggle. Being a dungeon really triggers my old kobold trap desires. Maybe in the next floor I am going to put some snares or a snare plant. Lets see what my [Dungeon core] trait says to get the next floor. Floor progress I didn¡¯t expect that the list would look like this. Also Kill at least 5 adventurers progress is finished!? What are they doing up there on the moss plateau. I focused my attention near the entrance. A I see the snakes with [lesser radioactive boost] poisoned a few with radiation. While the persons felt fine the radiation killed them. Maybe I should reduce the amount of radiation snakes. And 1 died trying to climb down the cliff he fell. The rainbow amphibians are happy with fresh meat. The rest of the expedition is fine. They even made a little camp around my statue. Now lets see what else I need to do. Hmm, the first one is annoying but doable. My core was after all over +9025% bigger than the normal 20 centimeter cores. So let¡¯s see that¡¯s around 18 meters across. So every passage way must be at that size? Well I can create 1 big tunnel and many smaller ones, but it will be easy to see the path to the core. Or I just make every ¡°small¡± passage 18 meters wide and tall. So the entrance to my little cave was enlarged to a round top gateway. Let¡¯s improve my core room as well shall I. I put myself on a totally normal sized pedestal only 400 meters tall. If you stand at the bottom it looks like a giant pyramid with a blue orb on top. Decorations can go later. Next requirement donate 10000 mana to the world. So that¡¯s where most mana comes from dungeons. And life itself I guess. But isn¡¯t 10000 a insignificant amount compared to a high level creature? I think that that number will go up very fast. 10000 isn¡¯t much with my mana algae. With all life including the algae I am currently producing over 100.000 mana per/h. so I finished that one. The dungeon arena and boss. I extend the rivier a bit and make a 500 diameter pit 20 meters deep. I make it so a thin layer of water covers every part of the pit. Flowing towards my core where it gets destroyed. I then make a staircase in the middle of the river into the pit. The staircase also covered in 15 centimeter of water. The pit I fill with normal sized red hyacinths, but the floor is made of stone so they grow out of small pits. I then make a altar in the middle of it. on it I write ¡°those who want to pass to the next floor. Put a drop of blood on the altar.¡± Then I putt a gate in the way to the core. The gate only will open after the boss has been defeated. For now it is open for I don¡¯t have a boss yet. The boss will come later now we have the last requirement an optional one Have at least 5 adventurers in you for 2 weeks. The reward is something I really want. With that upgrade I can improve [Gigantism] to [greater Gigantism]. the group going to my core is made of 6 people so I can ask them to stay in my dungeon for 2 weeks. Hopefully they will accept. Maybe I can bribe them. Speaking of them they are currently in the whispering field. Very close tom my core only 700 meters until the arena. Four of them really seem to struggle stabbing anything that moves or makes a sound. The two unaffected are the Human with scars and the alchemist who already had mask on. The human currently is carrying two of his party members one of which is the familiar felinid, seemingly been knock out by someone. Another is being held to the ground and forcefully being given a potion. That potion is either a antidote or resistance potion. The last one is being herded by a few raptors. They seem to have fun. Eventually the raptors surround him. He then fall unconscious because of the sheer panic he is in. The human shooed the raptors away. The raptor I think made laughing sound as they quickly ran away into the flowers disappearing. The group then made it out of the whispering field. They set up camp to wait for the unconscious party members. The two who were carried by the human woke up the fastest. Both rubbing their heads where they were smacked. The one who fell unconscious by panic woke up panicked. Shouting ¡°Many large bird with teeth. So-so many teeth thousand each beak and there were thousand large bird things. I heard them so many.¡± The alchemist gave the human a potion who force fed it to the panicking party member who then quickly regained his composure. Then after a quick thee break they got up and went inside the arena. The human looked sad for some reason when he saw that the gate was open. They then entered my core room. Which was only illuminated by my most beautiful massive core. I really should add a lot of gold here and become like a true dragon. chapter 10 {The Admirals adventuring party} The admiral looks at the kobold statue with the thumbs up ¡°It seems that the core of this dungeon agreed to let us go to their core with safe passage. So my party members we are going to go immediately. Get your stuff and we¡¯ll be off.¡± Says the admiral while looking at 5 people. A felinid called Ichthy, Badger the gnome alchemist, A silent crab-kin that has a chef¡¯s hat on, Whazra Backcrusher a female orc cleric and Gideon the weasel-kin a unevolved adventurer. They grab their stuff, Gideon taking the longest. ¡°Great, everyone is here. Now Ichthy show us the way to the cliff.¡± The group of six followed the small felinid following the water, going around the boiling lake to the cliff. ¡°You were not kidding Ichthy that it was a tall cliff. I don¡¯t think cliffs can be this big naturally. Unless they are created by a powerful earth mage.¡± Badger the Gnome in badger skin grabs a few potions from his many potion belts and gives them to each of the party members. ¡°Drink up this potion should work long enough to get us down hopefully landing in the roots rather than the water. Gideon looks suspicious at the potion unsure if it really works that long it is very high the cliff. ¡°Y-you sure it will work that long? I-it¡¯s very high here.¡± Badger gives Gideon a side eye and drinks the potion an jumps off the cliff falling at the speed of a brisk walking speed. Everyone except Gideon follows quick. ¡°Look Gideon nothing to fear.¡± Badger says. After a few seconds Gideon also takes the potion but instead of jumping drop of the cliff. Causing him to bounce off the cliff a few times before getting far away enough from the cliff. The 5 other party members minus the crab-kin are just talking while they hover down the cliff. Poor Gideon jumped too late if he wants to talk with the other he must shout. About a hour later they were reaching the bottom of the cliff. Unfortunately because Gideon didn¡¯t jump he couldn¡¯t reach the roots of the rootgrove. Luckily for him the water below was deep and filled with bubbles to catch his fall. The rest of the party grabbed parts of the roots where they sat and watched Gideon fall into the lower lake. ¡°How quickly do you think that he will get above water Whazra?¡± said the admiral while doing light physical training. ¡°mere seconds for he is a weasel-kin after all, weasel can swim good.¡± Gideon fell in the bubbling waters sinking below the water for more than a few seconds. ¡°It seems that your are wrong Whazra he is longer down there than a few seconds.¡± ¡°Hmmm, maybe the clothing pulled him down or bubbles¡± After 10 seconds of not seeing him they were getting worried. The crab-kin quickly gave his important stuff to the alchemist. His chefs hat several pans knifes spices etc. and jumped into the water towards where the weasel-kin should be. ¡°Whazra you might need to prepare that resurrection ritual already¡± the admiral said while poking the equally sized orc. Whazra just sighed and climbed to a spot in the roots where a ritual could be prepared. The crab-kin stayed under water for more than 5 miniutes until crab-kin brought out the presumably dead weasel-kin. The admiral and Badger helped the crab-kin getting Gideon out of the water to the ritual circle. ¡°luckily he just died and without any wounds. I will make the cost and effectiveness of the ritual faster. Put him there in the middle of the circle.¡± Whazra prayed to her god and resurrected Gideon. Gideon woke up and puked water immediately. ¡°I-I¡¯m not dead?¡± Whazra looks him over checking for any damage and after not finding anything she starts cleaning up the ritual. ¡°This place is nice, were going to camp here for a while, while you Gideon are going to rest until you feel better. And has anyone seen Ichthy.¡± The crab-kin points towards a lower root near the water where Ichthy is drawing colorful amphibians. While he is drawing the one amphibian flashes red blinding the felinid. ¡°HAH, Ichthy were going to make camp here. So don¡¯t go wondering off this forest is rather big.¡± The felinid disorientated nods towards where he thinks is the admiral. The party stays here for a while resting while Gideon is sleeping. Ichthy find the same ferns as on the moss plateau while inspecting a blue fern he gets electrocuted by one. Almost falling into the water with all his books. After 2 hours Gideon wakes up and they pack up camp. Grabbing the curios felinid they went back to going to the core. ¡°This forest is so interesting! Do you see those roots with white leaves? They float! Keeping the rest of the roots stable!¡± Ichthy shows a piece of wood that he tied to a string. The wood barely floating. ¡°Sadly it seems that the floating effect lowers after it has been processed. Still very good material for skyships.¡± The admiral looks at the felinid ¡°Skyships! Wonderful things great way to get to stronger monster faster and it lets you hunt giant flying creatures. Do you think there is enough wood to create skyships here Ichthy?¡± ¡°If the dungeon let the flora and fauna get even bigger than now, then yes. Keep in mind that if too many of these floating roots get taken away entire parts of this forest might collapse.¡± ¡°Good to know for when the acquisition guild causes the rootgrove forest to collapse.¡± They slowly walked trough the dense roots. Some on the roots were big enough to just walk over, but in some parts climbing was the only way. In many cases their backpack or clothing got stuck on a piece of root. Gideon one time got stuck so bad he had to get cut out of the roots. Other than that a few hit blue ferns getting electrocuted. Except for the admiral he didn¡¯t even notice that he was touching one. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. After 6 hours of moving trough the roots they came to the end of it. The roots became smaller and less high without the support of other rootgrove. Forcing the party to go into the marsh. Ichthy gave his backpack to the crab-kin to protect his books. Whazra and the admiral were most of the time tall enough to just walk on the muddy floor of the marsh. Ichthy and Badger sadly had to swim in the murky water. The crab-kin was just doing fine carrying the felinids backpack. ¡°Thank the gods the dungeon didn¡¯t create the leeches yet.¡± Badger said while standing on a drier piece of marsh. ¡°Why did the research guild give the dungeon leeches Ichthy¡± ¡°O, the leeches yes. The guild gave them to the dungeon because back at the town of rivermarsh they were draining the marshes. Causing the leaches to go almost extinct. That¡¯s the reason.¡± After a minute of rest they went past the last part of the marsh. When they finally left the marsh the rain also stopped there. Clearing up the visibility. Letting them see the giant ironwood trees. Gideon looking up ¡°A-are t-those trees? Trees shouldn¡¯t grow that big! How high is the roof, 5 kilometer?¡± ¡°very interesting there are also some ¡°smaller¡± ironwood trees beneath the giant ones.¡± Whazra said pointing to the 300 meter tall ironwoods.¡± ¡°It seems that this place is less finished than the marsh. It just has the moss and ironwoods. And some ferns that probably spread from the marsh¡± Ichthy pointed out. ¡°That would make sense the ironwoods were gifted around 10 hours ago. Now it is Time to explore a new biome then.¡± The admiral said while already moving to the ironwood forest. ¡°hey wait there I see some movement.¡± Badger the alchemist in badger skin said while pointing to a badger in the forest. ¡°This badger doesn¡¯t look like the basalt badger the acquisition guild gifted. This one looks like metal. A iron badger.¡± The admiral proudly said after naming the new creature. Ichthy sadly writes it down in his book, sad that he didn¡¯t get to name the new creature. Unafraid except for Gideon they went into the forest. The crab-kin discovering metal-flowers. The flowers look like a succulent plant where several pure bars of iron are sticking out of. And in the middle one big stem is growing where the actual flower is. ¡°These are some quick metal-flowers. Either the dungeon gave them metal or the ground has a large iron ore vein.¡± Ichthy drawing the metal-flower said. They went rather quickly trough the ironwood forest for the environment was a lot less hostile. No more rain high temperature and no electric ferns. Although there still was a little mist created by the river. ¡°The town shall be happy with this much pure iron and ironwood. The smelteries less. Maybe with this much iron we can convince the town and the nearest city to connect via train.¡± ¡°Admiral the closest town is past the drake-mountains. The town either needs to dig a tunnel or make the track trough drakes passage. The drakes wouldn¡¯t be happy if a loud train went through their territory.¡± Badger said. ¡°True, true but we have a dungeon and that city doesn¡¯t. so if that city wants easier access to the riches of the dungeon they need better access. It is only 2500 kilometers after all compared to the next closes dungeon near the capital, which is over if I am right 10000 kilometers away.¡± ¡°Aye that¡¯s true as well. It would make the 2 month journey on foot less than a day.¡± The party after a hour or 2 made it out of the ironwood forest. As they were exiting the forest the saw the river ending in pools of water. The water in the pools glowing blue. After a few minutes of walking they arrive at the stepped pools. ¡°The mana coming off these pools if very high.¡± Badger grabbed a empty bottle and filled it with a dense slurry of the blue goop. They walked on the thin edges between the pools. Gideon and the crab-kin went both for a dive in the pools, Gideon unwilling. Eventually Ichthy saw a way smaller pool hidden away in a pool. ¡°Wow, this is pure liquid mana. Badger do you have any bottles to carry liquid mana?¡± ¡°Aye, let me take a sample as well. You don¡¯t just find liquid mana just anywhere.¡± As the gnome and felinid were gathering the liquid mana Gideon almost lost his balance, but a knife fell out of its sheath. When the knife fell it fell in the explosive algae exploding the knife destroying the pool it was in. Gideon was knocked into the water again unharmed. Gideon half drowning ¡°What was that¡± ¡°It seems that this biome does have some surprises. Some pools have liquid mana and other possible liquid death.¡± The admiral said chuckling while helping Gideon on the edge again. After the liquid mana was collected they went back with they journey to the core. As they went deeper they saw a entire field of flowers was created and then a large drakeling was put into the field. The flowers they saw were over 4 meters tall. ¡°Those flowers are the fire-rose and water-hyacinth. With the possibility of a 3rd one can say for certain. Admiral what do you see?¡± ¡°The same, but a purple rose flower is there as well. Probably something to do with illusions.¡± After a long time they reach the whispering fields. The spores already affecting four party members. ¡°Hey do you guys hear that? Something is whispering in there¡± Gideon asks Whazra, the crab kin and Ichthy all nod. The admiral doesn¡¯t think much of it and the gnome think that because of his mask he couldn¡¯t hear it. The admiral as brave as he is enters the field. The rest follow soon. As quickly as they enter does is go wrong. Wharra and Ichthy quickly see things and hear things that scares them. Both looking franticly around until one of them shouts ¡°GORILLA¡± when the admiral come to check on them. Both try to run away but the admiral quickly grabs them. ¡°OH NO the gorilla has me. Save me Whazra¡± Ichthy trying his best to escape the muscles of the ¡°gorilla¡±. ¡°I can¡¯t the gorilla also has me!¡± The admiral laughing very hard ¡°These plant make people hallucinate. Now lets get you guys out of here.¡± The admiral knock both of them out and begins to walk out of the field. Bager looks at the squirming crab-kin. ¡°Look for me to help you, you need to open that annoyingly small mouth of yours.¡± The crab kin squirming while foam begins to come out of crab-kins mouth. ¡°Eh, I guess that¡¯ll do¡± Badgers jams a potion in the crab-kins mouth. After a few seconds the crab-kin calms down and Bager got of the crab-kin. 5 minutes later they left to get out of this field. Gideon on the other hand sees bird like creatures stalking him. Hearing them talk about how tasty he is. How tasty ripping his arms legs off then eating his tasty organs. There are thousands of them. Until finally he gets surrounded by them. What can he do, he thinks. There are thousands of them I am just alone. I am not even tasty! He then falls unconscious by the sheer stress of the situation. The admiral returned to the field to find Gideon. He found him surrounded by strange bird like creatures. They look similar to large landbound birds, but with claws instead of wings. He shooed them away grabbing Gideon. When he came out he saw the crab-kin and Bager starting a fire. ¡°I have found Gideon, I think he needs a new pair of pants¡± The admiral drops off Gideon down wind nest to the fire. Badger then grabs a kettle set and grabs some water from the river. He then sets the kettle on the fire. ¡°Do you want any tea admiral? I have an assortment of teas.¡± ¡°Ah, that would be lovely while we wait for the rest to wake up.¡± In a minute the two who were knocked out by the admiral woke up. Laughing about what happened. Then a half an hour later Gideon woke up. Shaken by what he experienced shouting nonsensical things. After he got some tea and rest they went back on their way to the core. ¡°It seems that this Is the last part before the core. I hope the core already has made a floor boss for me to fight.¡± The admiral said while stretching his arms. They came to the staircase leading into the arena where behind the gate was open. The admiral looked sad that there was no floor boss to fight. They then went past the 18 meter tall entrance entering the core room. When they entered they saw a giant blue core the same size as the gate they entered though. The core itself stood on a giant pyramid that was taller than the smaller ironwood trees. They then faintly heard a voice. ¡°Don¡¯t worry it is only 2353 steps.¡± As they entered all of them got a title. Congratulations you have gotten a Title: Titanic core reacher (1st floor) You have reached the core room of the Titanic core +10% size, +10% mana, +10% mana regen, +10% health ¡°Well then dungeon core let me get up there and show you the contract.¡± chapter 11 {The dungeon core} After saying that there were only 2353 steps only the human went up the stairs. Going 5 steps at a time, he reached the top in a minute of time. He then sat down in front of my core. He grabbed a piece of paper what I think the contract is. He grabbed a small table from somewhere and put the contract on the table. ¡°Here is the contract go have a look¡± Contract between the adventurers guild of rivermarsh and the dungeon core Titanic core. ¡°The contract is very loose and some of them you can find loopholes, but it is mostly to protect you from other governmental bodies.¡± The contract seems very beneficial. Looking over it Is indeed very loose and they will resolve outside political problems. I won¡¯t need to just send hordes of creatures as a ¡°political¡± response. I can¡¯t control creatures when they leave the dungeon. The only thing that might be a problem is the gradually more dangerous part. I don¡¯t know how dangerous my floor is. So I beam my thoughts over to the human. ¡°Hey, do you know how dangerous my floor currently is.¡± ¡°Ah, uh let me think.¡± ¡°If a party is well prepared for the environment I think this floor would end a high tier 0 floor. Although I am not sure if you include that giant drakeling. The flowers can be resisted if people use masks. While those bird creatures are smart and big a group of high tier 0 adventurers can go fight with them.¡± ¡°Unless the creatures lvl increases too much this floor will be fine. Just the drake is a bit overkill.¡± That¡¯s good to know that the first floor is within tier 0 for now lets set the max level of creatures to 9 for the flora uncapped. Now that I know that I can complete the contracts obligations I will accept the contract. I also think that this human can suplex my core if he really wants to. ¡°I accept the terms on this contract. How do I sign it?¡± ¡°You focus on the contract and create a signature in the paper.¡± The human points at a spot at a lower spot in the contract. ¡°Here.¡± I do what he said and focused on that part of the contract. Now what for signature do I want. Let me see. I have it! I create a kobold carrying a giant blue orb on that spot. The human looks at the contract. ¡°Well that¡¯s it. Good to have you on board.¡± ¡°Well then human, I have a request. I need 5 people to stay in my dungeon for at least 2 weeks. Can you and your party stay that long?.¡± ¡°I will ask my party members if they want it, and you or I can ask some people to stay for that long. Honestly a few researchers will with a high likelihood stay that long.¡± Oh well that¡¯s good to know that that one will be done in around 2 weeks. If not I can just summon precious gems or other precious resources to convince them to stay. ¡°One last question human what species is that crab person?¡± ¡°A crab-kin, he hasn¡¯t spoken so I have no idea if they are any other species either.¡± Having nothing else to talk about the human gets up, and goes down the stairs. Before they leave I ask them. ¡°Do you still want the protection of not being attacked?¡± Whazra and the admiral didn¡¯t want the protection while Gideon and Ichthy wanted it. After a few minutes of bickering they chose to keep the protection. Now that they have left for real, I rechecked again what is needed. The 2 week adventurer stay and the boss. Now that I think of it didn¡¯t I forget the greater marsh leech. They will be a great addition to the lower lake and pools. I created one to see what traits they have. Lvl 1 greater marsh leech Mana: 8/8 Regen: 1 mana per/h Species traits [Marsh Predator], [Lesser paralyzing Saliva], [Minor Elastic Body] The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. [Marsh Predator] This trait enhances the ability to hunt better in swampy environments. +100% movement (swamp),+50% stealth (swamp) [Lesser paralyzing Saliva] This trait gives the ability to numb the flesh. +50% paralyze effect [Minor Elastic Body] This trait gives the ability to be more flexible and stretchable. +25% body elasticity The trait [Lesser paralyzing Saliva] is truly interesting. Being able to bite something and they might not notice it. Or even worse is many leeches bite a weak person they might get fully paralyzed and fall in the water. [Marsh Predator] a good trait but situational to marshes and swamp like areas. [Minor Elastic Body] on the other hand minor trait could be useful if I get a better version of it. The leeches currently are 45 centimeters long and up to 10 centimeters wide, if I added [Gigantism] they would be around a meter long and 20 centimeters wide. Eh, more for the research guild to discover. I created 3 versions of leeches. One with [Gigantism], one with [lesser natural stealth] and one with [lesser electro-synthesis]. All three replacing [Minor Elastic Body]. The big ones are going to be the most common ones and the electric one the least. Placing all three in the lower lake and the river downstream all the way to the pools. In the pools there will be more electric versions. The pools aren¡¯t swamps or marshes, so the ones that live in the river and pools I gave [lesser predatory instinct] instead of [Marsh Predator]. And speaking of getting better versions of traits. I could make a farm to improve traits. I just need a place to test them and a trait that would be interesting to see upgraded. The [lesser electrical instability], that would be a fun trait to try to upgrade. I created a room all the way on the roof, above the entrance to my core. I created a pool where I put the exploding algae. I made the algae so that when they reach maturity and split they explode. Then the one with the bigger explosion gets remade. That pool was quickly filled with explosion and lightning. For now you can barely hear it while being in the arena. The sound will probably get louder over time. Now that all creatures that were gifted have been created is it time to create the boss of this floor. Lets see what for creature can I use for the boss. The three creatures that could be turned into a boss are the drakeling, badger and raptor. The Human said that the drakeling would be too powerful for this floor. That leaves me with two options. Using the badger it would create a situation where the badger would be really tough and slow. Creating a boring fight. Using the raptors as a template for the boss would be the best, but one raptor would not be a fight. It would be too easy. Using three of them would be better. Although it would have minimal difference compared to the whispering field. And the traits they would have now aren¡¯t the greatest. Upgrading the [lesser intelligence] would be good, and then mutate a speed or cooperative trait. Creating the new trait would be the easiest, just putting them in a radioactive zone and creating many of them. The ones who do best in speed or cooperation get used for new creation. Until a mutation occurs. Upgrading [lesser intelligence] will be more difficult. While they could just randomly get it from mutation, it will be a very low chance. Oh I totally forgot, the boss gets to be lvl 10. Which means that there is a possibility that the [lesser intelligence] will upgrade. I started the mutation pit. Removing the leftover bodies as they piled up. I moved the bodies to the lower lake, feeding the amphibians and leeches. While also creating more biological muck a the bottom of the lake. It took way longer compared to the other times I did this, it is likely that smaller creatures mutate faster? Or these raptors have more innate mutation and radiation resistance. After 4 days of mutating and dumping over 6000 bodies into the lower lake, I got the mutation I wanted [Enhanced Agility]. [Enhanced Agility] This trait improves movement and reaction speed. +100% movement, +50% reaction speed. A simple but effective trait. Perfect for my first floor boss. I created 3 raptors with [Enhanced Agility], [gigantism] and [lesser intelligence]. As I selected the three as the boss they evolved. Each one improving a different trait. One of them got [Greater gigantism], another got [greater Enhanced Agility] and the last one got [intelligence]. Sadly since these evolved I cannot take their trait, and if I try to do so I only see the unevolved traits they got. I can only get the traits if the unevolved form has the traits. Now what for reward shall the ones who conquer this boss get. Giving a big chunk of rare resources is not a good idea, too heavy to bring back. Can¡¯t create magical ores and items yet, unless I use body parts of my creatures or flora. What I will give as reward shall be armor pieces of the boss. Three different sets. All three having many colorful feathers and a raptor mask as helmet. I do wonder what bonusses these armors will give, sadly I don¡¯t have a way of inspecting them. Time to implement the boss summoning visuals. I made it so that when someone dropped a droplet of blood on the altar the arena begins to fill with steam. The stairs close behind them trapping whoever is in the arena, unless they can climb a sheer 20 meter smooth wall. Then in the smoke the three raptors are created. When the smoke clears then the raptors start their attack. I also made it so if someone tries to attack the boss while not being in the arena. There would be small raptor created who would try to push in the attacker or try to make the attacker go away. The amount of tiny raptors increase with time. {The party going back form the core} ¡°WHY ARE THERE SO MANY CORPSES!¡± Gideon says, after which he vomits. ¡°It seems that the dungeon is dumping these raptors here. Potentially he is creating a new trait. Look at that one, that one is very malformed.¡± Ichthy said while taking samples of the raptors after which he starts drawing the scene. Wharza and the crab-kin are barbequing a few fresh raptors on a fire. ¡°Quite tasty don¡¯t ya say crabby?¡± The crab-kin nods very hard. Badger shakes his head, preparing a few anti food poisoning potions. In the distance the Admiral is fighting a few rainbow amphibians while surrounded by dead raptors, leeches and rainbow amphibians. ¡°HAHAHAHA, I have never fought this big of amphibians. And these leeches that try to electrocute me are great energy boosters.¡± Gideon watches as the Admiral bite into an electric leech making Gideon vomit again.