Chapter 28 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

There are only three moose left on the wolf floor, but I must say that I have underestimated them. The three are even now alive a few weeks after I released the original 20. Combined, they have killed dozens of wolves, but the moose that are alive are in the areas where wolves haven't evolved to be more deadly but are better at surviving their environment. No matter how impressive they turned out to be, a regular animal could hardly fight against evolved creatures that could slice metal in half.

During this time, I've made a few more females for a few species, but more importantly, I focused on the fishes. Bluegills can now reproduce, which has turned the ant's previously relatively safe waters into one of the most dangerous areas.

That being said, it's also really profitable for the different nations to hunt the fish, especially the smaller ones who have just hatched, because for some reason they really enjoy the taste of fish. It's now almost as valuable as honey as a commodity, which I didn't predict. Also, the scales and bones of fish are highly prized by champions as they make for great armor and weapons.

The influx of creatures has slowed down, and currently only the bug person is still bringing me different kinds of bugs regularly, and I now have close to 1,000 different kinds, even though some are extremely similar to one another.

He seemed to be genuinely excited every time he came here, but I soon figured out why he left disappointed. He was looking at the corners of the dungeon rooms, and I suspected he hoped that I would start making bugs.

If he only knew what was really happening, I think he would die from excitement. But I was so grateful to him that I actually did add a few bugs into the dungeon rooms just to add some atmosphere, and I couldn't wait to see his reaction when he came the next time.

Even his visits were starting to be more infrequent, but three days later he did once again show up, bringing two new bugs. But when he heard one of the grasshoppers make their distinctive sound, I could have sworn that his soul left his body for a few moments.

It was impressive to see how fast he tracked down the grasshopper, and then he started to explore more and more. He had only reached the 10th floor, and fighting here proved difficult for him. But when I saw him figure that out, I saw so much determination in him that it made me want to breakthrough this instant so I could start expanding once again. He rushed out, and I was quite certain that he was going to return so he could start ranking up.

I was correct; not a few hours later he was back, starting to clear the dungeon rooms but stopping to admire different bugs that he found. It was at this moment alarms went through my core. Almost all of me focused on the entrance, where I saw a huge creature rush into me while being heavily wounded.

I heard people yelling "no" when the creature went into me, and soon they were yelling "be careful and don’t kill it." But someone had used a skill at an unfortunate moment where the beast turned its head to look backwards, and it headed straight into the eye. And whatever ranged skill it was, it was deadly enough to kill it in an instant.

What followed was yelling and blaming amongst adventurers, but I didn’t care; I was fully focused on capturing this pattern. It was an incredible creature, a lot bigger than even the moose, and when I got its pattern, I understood that it was not even fully grown yet.

I now had a creature called a wooly rhinoceros. All of me wanted to celebrate, but after I calmed down a bit, I understood what had happened. This wasn't an accident, no matter how much the adventurers were cursing about this situation; this was something deliberate, and I received my second creature larger or similar in size to a bear.

No, there were still probably smaller creatures to get, but the ants' suggested that we should test how honorable the annoying person is. So once again, I stopped expanding mana and started to put my mana regeneration into getting closer to the breakthrough.

It should only take about three days, and the time went by fast as I concentrated on holding as much mana as possible. When I reached my absolute maximum and just wanted to scream out in pain, I triggered the breakthrough and felt the euphoria that followed.

When I reached the point where I needed to allocate the percentage I wanted for the next floor expansion or this floor's guardian room, I ran into trouble. I hadn't thought at all about what kind of floor guardian I wanted. A bear was too strong, but not because of its attacking power; mostly due to its ability to tank damage.

Not having much time to think about it, I went with a 5-wolf wolf pack. I had many different evolutions to pick from, and while none of them had deviated extremely from each other, there were still important differences that would affect how well they would do in this type of fight.

Quickly going to the patterns that I had, I picked the wolves that were a bit more tanky but were still able to do a decent amount of damage. That done, I started to design the room itself. Making it fully inside the forest would give adventurers too much of an advantage, so I made a smaller wooded area in the far corner where the wolves would rush out to attack the adventurers who were in the grassland.

This would help hide the wolves, as the grass would be quite tall, but that wouldn't be the main reason for this terrain. The main reason would be that the adventurers would be out in the open and at the mercy of a clever wolf pack looking for food.

This was only the second time when I finished the first stage of the breakthrough and ended up in the second stage. Once again, I could allocate mana percentages to the skills that I have, but for this stage, I had actually thought quite hard about what I want. I would split my mana allocation between my lowest-ranked skill, Pattern Strengthening, and my highest-ranked skill, Space Expansion.

Pattern Strengthening reached Rank C+, but it will be a long process to get them higher which will get faster the more floors I have. Because every time I achieve a breakthrough, I will be able to store more mana, which would make my percentages of mana mean more during every breakthrough.

With that done, I had a completely new floor to claim and start terraforming. I still had no idea what I wanted to do, but it will take quite a while before I get done with cleaning up the 12th floor. As for my dungeon rooms, I now opened every section up, and after I did a quick count of the dungeon rooms, I know that I certainly went overboard.

The adventurers now had access to almost 7000 rooms, with about 1000 rooms in every section that's not directly connected and only accessible through gateways. It will probably take a long time before anyone reaches the floor guardian room, and I do hope that the ants will soon figure out some way so different adventurers could save their progress in different waystations.

POV Ace

The dungeon actually did something, even before I completely fulfilled my end of the deal. Now, I don't know if it thinks that I finished or if it's testing me, but whatever the case is, I will continue to fulfill my end of the deal.

What I wasn't expecting was another gateway to a different section of the dungeon, and not the floor guardian room. At first, I thought that it had still been making rooms and didn't understand that it needed to stop, but even the guild master was floored when an adventurer team who pushed through the new section in two weeks, which was incredibly impressive, only to reach a new complete section—at least that's what they think.

None of us have any idea how large the dungeon now actually is, and I'm kind of scared about what this news could do, but I'm also incredibly excited. Because from the readings of the mana levels, the dungeon did breakthrough and should now have 12 floors.

The more we learn about this dungeon, the more we just simply don't understand what the Dungeon Pixie Guild was thinking, as it doesn't seem to align with what they told us. Whatever the case might be, I will sink or rise with this dungeon.