Tiny Dungeon

Valterra looked over the attic with a critical eye. It was reasonably large and perfect for a Fourth Floor. The only issue is that he already had a Fourth Floor and any attempt to change that would necessitate a change of other Floors. If he didn’t do it properly and in the proper sequence then his Floors would become unstable. What he could do, however, is make the attic into a Hidden Floor and then introduce it later as the proper Fourth Floor.

He got to work by forming a small city up in the rafters of the attic as a pit stop for any of his creatures that would fit in the design. Most likely they would be his Mouse Guards or similarly small creatures. He used his father’s memories extensively in the crafting of it but put his own twist on it. Like a pillar, it reached upward to meet his entrances that brought in Aether with each of his breaths. Stone spread outward along the rafters forming houses above and below. The houses above hung from the rock in clumps with tunnel-like streets leading from them to the central pillar where the path down began in spiraling patterns.

The city below sprawled outward from the pillar with its own open streets and thoroughfares. Empty storefronts and government buildings were spread out along separate rafters with housing separated still. His breath was carried through the center of the pillar till it exited out the bottom and then dispersed through the walls and down to the Fourth before being carried upward into the Fifth and Sixth respectively. Valterra hummed in displeasure at how circuitous it was.

He instinctively knew that breathing should be easy and straightforward. What he was doing now was wasteful. It wasn’t like he wasn’t getting enough Aether it was just that the way he was going about it was terribly inefficient. ‘But that will change soon,’ the Core swore to himself. ‘Once I’m done here I can move on to the Seventh and Eighth Floors and finish them too. After that, hmm, I’ll get started on moving some things around and we will see what sticks.’

Valterra finished the miniature-massive city quickly after his little internal conversation and moved on. Below the city in the rafters, on the attic’s floor, he created a soft bed of earth and then made a carpet of moss. He then made a road of stone that led to one of the ways down to the Fourth Floor. He made sure to create stone outcroppings inside the wall that would allow his creatures to climb down. From there it would be easy to direct creatures through the inner section of the walls to where they needed to go. Most would be directed to the Fifth but there would be a few perhaps that he would place elsewhere.

Back up in the attic, he began sealing off a section of the attic behind a stone wall that he made to look like wood. It was thin and only possible because he could create stone out of thin air with Aether. What it would do though is hide the other side from view. In the corner where the stone wall hit the side of the attic, he placed a small unobtrusive opening that looked like a mouse tunnel. Within the sealed-off section, he summoned a new High Danian Ant queen in her own cubby etched into a rafter where she would be safe. He made sure to make her an Empress and gave her enough food to live on. Then he summoned some Feral Mice, Beetles of various kinds, and some Aether-Dew Mold.

It wasn’t a lot and he knew that. The point was to create a "Pseudo" Floor hidden from sight until it could become a proper Floor where his creatures could live and grow before moving on to the Fifth and Sixth Floors with their more powerful Schemas. After all, most of the ones coming through would be Commons and Uncommons. The Fourth Floor would be a place of rest for the creatures who succeeded in making it this far. Oh, there would still be conflict but he hoped that the space provided would be enough. The city he had made would be for any Mouse Guards who headed down. ‘I suppose it could also be used by Delvers.’ Valterra thought, surprising himself. ‘Hah,’ he scoffed, ‘One slightly favorable interaction and you’re already letting down your guard. Let’s not get too carried away.’

With his Hidden Floor created he made sure to put a few Aether Pylons down so that his creatures wouldn’t suffer a lack considering the Floor was off his main breathing pattern. Then he finalized it and left, even as the System pinged him that he had succeeded in forming a Hidden Floor. He made note of the fact that he had reached 80% of the progress needed to reach his next Core Evolution. If the pattern continued he would be able to evolve after two more Floors. Frankly, that was perfect.

His Eighth Floor would move him up to 90% and then he could move some things around. Then once the whales succeeded in finding the Pond’s heart he could claim it and reach the necessary progress by making the Pond its own Floor. It was with that thought in mind that Valterra moved his Awareness over to the Eighth Floor. He spent a moment simply looking at it, thinking over what he would need to do in order to make it a full Floor. It all came down to creatures. He had his High Danians that were taking to their new home like the whales had to water and he had the single Nestkin that had made it down after it had evolved.

Valterra hummed and then activated the Swarming Nestkin Schema, pouring Aether into it to create more of them. The current Nestkin looked around wide-eyed as others of its kind came into being around it. It had been doing its best to make use of the materials Valterra had left for it to use for that purpose. With the addition of its kin, it would be able to craft a more pleasant abode in less time. Satisfied that the Swarming Nestkin had a decent presence on the Eighth Floor the Core moved on to choosing Schemas that would fit with the Floor.

With a flex of his will, he brought forth two Aether-Mutated House Cats. He placed them in the forest in one of the larger underground dens where he hoped they would be content. It certainly seemed like they would be as their ears pricked up and their noses twitched at all the new smells. The Core made sure to have them be separate genders as he hoped they would be able to mate and have offspring.

That being said they weren’t the only ones he was going to add. Up in the canopy of the bed he formed three Wyvres in what he was going to call the Roost. On the mountain crag within a pit in the earth, he formed half a dozen Coppertip Moles. He made sure to create some copper deposits around for them to find. As soon as he had the time to work through all the Schemas from the Garden he would add a few but until then he figured this was enough. The seeds were set and he would see what came of it.

He completed the Eighth Floor with a thought and command for the creatures to cement their nests and spread their species. His progression to his Core Evolution went up by another ten percent leaving him at 90%. He darted from there to the Seventh Floor and looked it over with a critical eye. The moles were doing a little better, their Aether conduits getting used to the extreme heat. He found, to his surprise, that the Pinewillow Emberseed had finished its Evolution into a Flamewillow Sapling.

It was a tall slim thing, reaching around three feet in height with long drooping limbs that reached back toward the ground. Those limbs were covered in red-hot needles that ignited into sputtering flames drifting with the heat waves present on the Seventh. At various spots along the trunk molten sap spilled forth to trail burning lines down the sapling until they fell in sizzling drops to the ground where they hardened. Valterra gazed in wonder at the little tree that defied the natural world surrounding his Dungeon on all sides.

Calling forth his Aether, Valterra summoned several more saplings in various spots, watching as they took hold of the ground around them and shot up to around the same height as the first one. He watched as their needles ignited and began to draw in the ambient heat that sustained them. More sap began to drip down to the floor below and Valterra was satisfied that his moles would soon have a new kind of deposit to explore. He hoped that it would affect their evolutions to come.

Finished he pulled back his Awareness and surveyed the Seventh Floor. There was prey and predator alike and plenty of places for the prey to hide. Stone trees abounded for the squirrels to climb and escape to. The mantises present were still running around in a little pack, hunting moles, or climbing to grasp at larger prey with the squirrels.

The Embermaw Mink was a true terror and most of the denizens fled when she began to prowl around. She had found a mole tunnel near the back of the room and dug it out further to create a den for herself. She seemed quite content to be fled from but from the look of her den, he knew she had been successful in hunting. Perhaps she was the reason behind the lack of moles.

Regardless, Valterra hadn’t forgotten that it was in the creation of the Seventh Floor that he had the idea for Guardians and so he felt it was fitting that the Seventh should have a Guardian of its own that fit its unique nature. To achieve that goal he really only had two options to choose from. He could choose his unique tree, the one that had evolved, or he could choose the Embermaw Mink. His Core flashed in blues and greens as he did the Dungeon Core equivalent of a shrug. He chose both.