The Tower in the Shadows

I travel down to my core and the beginning of the stairwell that will lead to the second floor.

Now, knowing the cost of the alterations I had made to my core, I could live with them. My CP was being reduced by the amount of core that had altered every level I increased. I was losing five percent of my levelling increases at the moment. A trade-off I was willing to make for the ability to store and use mana.

I was looking over the giant river toad design screen. It was much "tankier" than the wasps on the first floor and, in turn, slower. The ghost-light wisp was a bust. Larry could sneeze at one and it would die. Its only saving grace was a few abilities it had. Unless another option appeared, the toads would form the floor's defenders after some tinkering.

"What to do."

Logic dictated that I had to make this floor more challenging than the first. The toads would do that. Or alter them? Maybe shake things up environmentally as well?

Options.

First, begin digging down. The stairwell would be the same on every floor. This would be the way in and out for everyone. The stairwell was more than wide enough to fulfil this purpose. It took about an hour to create the room. I went deeper than the floor above to avoid the bottom of the pit traps. It was becoming almost second nature to me to use my Aura Manipulation to mark out the areas that would be made into parts of my Dungeon.

I started a new floor map by creating a corridor going west like the 1st floor. I noted this as 2A on the map I was generating. I had already decided to match the idea of the entryway that led deeper into the floor on the bottom north side and the one-way exit from the floor boss on the south like above—time to start on the first proper room. I quickly absorbed the earth until the room was shaped. Then, I covered it in stone slabs like above.

"Okay. How am I going to do this?"

I spent a few minutes thinking about the toad, what environment would suit them, and how to create it.

"Toads like to sit in water, so there's that. So, something water-based, maybe with plants?"

The dungeon core literature indicated in their stories that I should be able to grow plants inside my Dungeon without needing sunlight. It's time to find out if this is possible.

I start to alter the room some more. Firstly, I mark out a three-meter circle in the room. Second, drop the floor around the circle a further half meter down and turn the slabs into a solid block of stone. This created a step that had to be factored into leaving and entering the room. I then make a second circle, the first about two inches from the outer and remove the stone from it to a depth of five inches. Soil is then filled into the space until it is level again with some manure. Now for the plants. I have grass seeds in my inventory, which are incredibly cheap to make. I seed the soil, adding a little water and then leave it to see the results. With the increased CP from my levelling up and the low cost of the materials, I can get most of the floor laid out before I exhaust my CP.

I turned my attention back to the rest of the floor and got to work. This floor will be far more spread out and cover a larger area than the one above. I start heading north, making more corridors and a room and then turning east, creating the third room. Another passage turns south and a short distance from the stairwell, I hollow out what will be the largest chamber on this floor. From here, I turn south and west, creating another two rooms and corridors. Finally, I started what will be the boss room to the north on the other side of the original passage. I made the doorway and noted that the map I have produced lists the rooms/corridors as 2A-M.

My increased CP regeneration and overall amount made this far more straightforward than the floor above. I had ignored the alert message in my view as I did not want to be distracted. Crossing to the first and almost completed room, I inspected the soil I had laid.

"Nothing so far."

I looked around and thought about water, but first, the alerts.

Level Up!

Aura Manipulation has increased to level 7. CP use was reduced to 93%.

Alert!

CP regeneration increased to 2.0 per hour.

Materials Absorbed:

Coal

Stag bones (Full skeleton)

"Aura and CP increase. Sweet! A full skeleton like the wolf?"

What was that about? I looked around my screens and found an entry indicating I could use these to create a new undead minion similar to the wolf bones I had found earlier.

"Undead. Possible future project, but not now." I could not risk creating undead until I could figure out how the locals would react to them, with core destruction being one highly possible outcome.

"Right then, water."

Creating water was one of the easiest things for me. I figured that one CP made ten gallons. It took several minutes, but I filled the room with water below the half-meter mark. There was a little overspill, but I could deal with that quickly.

"Right now, the toads."

The standard toad cost two CPs to create. However, I wanted to experiment, so I opened the menu to produce one and added an additional CP to the process through the customisation option. Adding mana was not an option as I only had one type and did not think it would synergise well with the toad. I created it in the first corridor.

The motes of light quickly appeared, along with the whirlwind of dust and the new dungeon minion was formed with an alert.

Congratulations!

You have created a Dungeon Giant River Toad.

"Okay. Let's have a look. Status screen. Dungeon Giant River Toad."

Name

Dungeon Giant River Toad

Level/Class

1 - Dungeon Minion

Race

Toad (Dungeon)

Essence

0%

Health

70/70

Mana

20/20

Stamina

60/60

Corruption

0%

STR

5

5 Damage Base

DEX

3

AGL

3

END

6

VIT

7

PER

3

INT

2

WIL

2

LUCK

2

Skills:

Leap: 1 – 0% (4 meters. END +2 impact damage) Cost: 4 Stamina

Equipment:

Barb Tongue: Dam 4 + STR Range: 2 meters

"Right then. STR and VIT increased by one with corresponding improvements in health and damage. Its barbed tongue has also been improved along with its range."

This toad cost three CPs to produce in my Dungeon. It was a definite improvement over the original. The toad I had made was looking around and opening its mouth. The tongue came out and moved around. It was longer and the barbs more pronounced. When the tongue retracted, the barbs did as well.

"Bhaldor, can work with this."

I nudged my newest minion into the first room and watched it explore the space. The second toad was added to the room and I assigned the loot for them.

Loot Assignment.

The following rewards will be generated randomly after killing the two Dungeon Giant River Toads.

Cythian Copper coins x2 (Chance – 80%)

Cythian Copper coins x3 (Chance – 20%)

The odds and types of rewards may be set manually, but this will increase the room respawn's overall support cost.

Do you wish to alter the rewards: Yes or No?

"No."

Well, that cost me. The toad's upkeep is the same as the wasps', as my CP total dropped by two and the six to create them. I now had a maximum of 177 CP points. The odds were slightly better here to get a bigger payout equal to clearing five wasp rooms above.

"I wonder what the loot criteria are?" No messages came to that question, so I continued. The next corridor was devoid of anything, so I decided to leave it as a brief resting area after the toads. The next room was altered as the first; this time, I left three raised circular areas. I did not add soil to them as I was waiting for the results from the first. Here, I created three toads after the room was filled with water.

Loot Assignment.

The following rewards will be generated randomly after killing the three Dungeon Giant River Toads.

Cythian Copper coins x3 (Chance – 80%)

Cythian Copper coins x4 (Chance – 20%)

The odds and types of rewards may be set manually, but this will increase the room respawn's overall support cost.

Do you wish to alter the rewards: Yes or No?

"No." I looked over the table before answering.

"It looks like it's linked to numbers on this floor. I wonder if it is due to the toads being slower but much tougher."

I moved around the room, watching the toads for a few minutes. Then, I set up one of the four pitfall traps planned for the floor in the next corridor. They were copies of the ones from the floor above—nothing fancy, just easy to produce and cheap. After approving the loot, I moved on.

Room 2F was altered to match the other rooms, with one raised circle and one toad. There was nothing too hard there. The longest passage on this floor was 2G, with two pitfall traps to make it interesting for visitors. Room 2H was where things were going to get tougher. Four raised circles with four toads. This should be a challenging room. Once the necessary loot option had been approved, I moved on.

Another pitfall trap and two more rooms with two or three toads in them. Loot assigned and reset cost paid for the floor. Almost done; just the last room to go, the floor boss.

I had been thinking about it as I went through creating the floor. My increased CP storage and regeneration had come into play here, allowing the floor to be almost finished much faster than the first. Before creating the floor boss, I checked in on the first room and my grass-growing experiment.

It had been two days and I was not expecting any change. The toads were in the water, chilling and croaking every so often. I was here to see the soil section of the raised circle. I was using my ability to go in close to see if there was any change. Much to my surprise, there was! I could just make out the green tips of several dozen grass blades.

“Bhaldor, has grass!” This was going to lead to loads of new options for me. In my excitement, I realised I was addressing myself in the third person again.

Before I could do anything else, I got a familiar feeling from within my Dungeon.

"Oh, Shit! Where are you? Mana Sight. Activate."

I quickly adjusted to the change in my vision and went hunting. Finding a newly formed Shadow mana mote took me only a short time.

I took a deep mental breath. I grabbed it and rushed to my core, ignoring the alerts.

"Mana Sight de-activate."

I placed it with my core in one of the pre-prepared bubbles and checked the alerts.

"Success!"

Mana Stored

Illusion – 20.5(40) / 0.01 phr.

Shadow – 8(40) / 1.1 phr.

"I now can store Shadow mana!"

After checking the rest of my sheet, I noticed that my Mana Sight and Manipulation had improved slightly. That's a bonus result!

"Two of the five filled. I might need more soon. But the cost." I was still pleased, but the worry of further alterations to my core was creeping in.

I could now create more Sharoons. Or recreate Larry if I needed to. This was a worry I had been living with since I had made him.

"Right! Back to the second floor…... hold on, let's move the core first."

Over the next hour, I changed the position of my core to the second floor and removed any evidence of the hiding place on the first. I then checked the essence on the floor with my Mana Sight, placing vents to get it moving more and hiding my location better. I then had to stop to allow my CP to regenerate as I was running very low.

"What are you doing, Larry?"

I was bored and went to find out what he was doing. As always, he was slumming it in the rafters of the entry room of the tower building. He had returned there after moving me down to the second floor. My increased size had not been an issue for him, but that will change.

"So, Larry, how has your day been?"

His response was to turn over and show me his back. Okay, I got the message—it was time to wander about again.

"Three bubbles in my core still free. Should I create more?"

"Risks and rewards. Risks and rewards."

"What do you think I should do?"

“……….”

"Hang on, why am I even asking you!"

I knew what needed to be done and was wasting time until my CP regenerated. Floor boss!

Still, time was needed to be killed. Travelling around my expanded Dungeon was fun, watching the different minions doing their thing, which was not a lot and got boring fast.

On my travels, more moss was discovered growing on the first and second-floor tower window ledges. Absorbing it confirmed it was the same stuff as before and gave me nothing interesting. Up on the tower's highest floor, I looked at all I could survey, which was pretty much nothing. The same monochrome-filled static fuzz was all that was visible. Sure, I could make out rough details like the mountains, river and forest, but that was it.

"I need a change in scenery. A desert would be more interesting."

Time dragged but passed very slowly and my CP returned to the amount I needed. By then, I was back on the second floor, ready, all giddy and excited.

"Floor boss time!"

The floor boss would be an improved version of the minion found on the floor. This was my plan for the foreseeable future until I had access to more mana sources and minion designs.

With the first-floor boss, I added five additional CPs to its creation. The result was satisfying but costly. Here, I would add seven, meaning the boss would cost me nine CPs to create and maintain. Shuddering mentally at the cost, I set everything into motion. Everything went well, and I checked my alerts.

Congratulations!

You have created an improved minion.

Greater Dungeon Giant River Toad created!

……………

This minion can be assigned to this room as the floor guardian.

Do you wish this to happen: Yes or No?

"Yes."

Loot Assignment.

After killing the 2nd Floor Guardian, the following rewards will be generated randomly.

Cythian Copper coins x20 (Chance - 80%)

Cythian Silver coins x1 (Chance – 20%)

The odds and types of rewards may be set manually, but this will increase the room respawn's overall support cost.

Do you wish to alter the rewards: Yes or No?

"No." These alerts and setting its respawn options were quickly cleared so I could see my latest creation. I tried not to weep as my CP total fell to 122.

My 2nd floor boss was to be described in one word: "chunky." It was twice the size and probably even heavier than the others created. The skin on its back was even more rough-looking. Looking closer…..

"Errr….. what's this?" An alert, flashy, angry red icon appeared, dominating my eye view.

"Open alert."

Raid Alert!

Your Dungeon is being raided!

A group of sentients above the allowed amount has entered your Dungeon. Your core may be at risk.

Rally your minions!

Defend your Core and Dungeon!

…………..

Minion room/floor restrictions have been lifted until the raid has been completed or defeated!

"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!"