Day 3…

“alright, you guys can evolve now whilst I fix some part of the dungeon” Tier announced and the kobolds started opening their menus to check for themselves ‘wonder what they’ll become… oh well, it’s their choice’ he thought to himself before working out some kinks in his dungeon… and actually working to be a dungeon.

Starting at the entrance going east, he sent three flying kanids alongside three lesser giant varmilleons as his early warning system, he also widens the room a bit whilst also adding more vegetation but not adding critters as he felt that they were going to breed and migrate from room to room anyways. Going through the three pitfall traps which were hastily built with sharp stone spikes in them, he covered all in a thin layer of stone capable of taking some weight to allow the kobolds and other critters through one at a time but will break if anything over 60 kilos walks over it. The stone door is one thing he removed but instead of absorbing it he thought about storing it and then was surprised to realize he himself actually have a kind of physics breaking magical storage systems which he took for granted because he was tired of asking questions.

Next up, he did almost nothing in the second room but realized that torches don’t make any sense on the first floor where he was trying to make a traditional cave so he deleted all of them and placed shine mushrooms all over the cave to create a short of dim glowing blue light which also increased the atmosphere. He adds the rest of the giant varmilleons alongside one of the two lesser cave serpent here to be the first true combat room of the dungeon. He then picked east and went to the hallway leading to the originally dead end room and added with his knowledge of engineering four pairs of 4x2 repeating arrow traps that trigger when you stepped on a pressure pad but to not be too mean he made the bronze and twig arrows blunt and even doubled back to remove the spikes from the first two pits as well but increasing their depth and making them harder to climb out of.

In the original dead end room, he looked to the red helm mushrooms, the blood moss and the small Cliffside and smiled or at least tried to. He placed two newly spawned modified monitors inside the room alongside with six vespers, two slimes and four kobolds… well he planned to but he didn’t have the mana for it so… only two monitors for now but he will get back to it later. Back to the first room, he went north this time and made two more pitfall traps, one spiked, one annoying and moved into the next room.

‘hmmm… hey can I make this into some sort of puzzle or something?’ Tier asked mentally.

Yes, you can.

‘okay… but how?’ he asked again.

Simply by focusing on it and enacting your will.

… ‘helpful as ever I suppose…’

Tier got back to work and made the puzzle, it was simple as ever… a door lock in which you much slide the symbols into the correct order and place in order for the door to the large rocky room to the East was located. The puzzle was simple as far as Tier was concerned as the challenger simply has to simple take a piece out before putting it back in to create a rough ancient styled picture of a Monitor... or a serpent… or a Varmilleon… It depends on the whims of the automatic randomizer system he placed there making it choose from one of Tier’s more common creatures.

For the two hallways leading to the rocky room, he put nothing there but he then put more boulders in the room alongside putting all the flying kanids in the room whilst sending six of the vespers to the original dead end room and putting the rest including Batra in the room but ordering them to only attack if any would be intruders were loud enough to disturb them. Tier also placed seven lesser cave serpents here alongside three modified ones with the paralysis poison from Ruma and a greater cave serpent for good measure.

For the last room before the boss, he made another puzzle room but this one only need you to hit certain ancient styled buttons with murals on them to open the door leading to the boss and the order was actually your experience inside the dungeon with the murals changing based on what you did and how you did it. The room also acts as a final ret before the boss so he added a campfire to make people toasty, a small 2ft deep 3ft wide water spring filled with fresh water and even two clay pots with some food inside of them.

Tier however was not so kind when it comes to the hallway leading to the boss room with a large well-hidden arrow trap with a timed trigger to fire after three seconds when one stepped on the invisible pressure plate after a fake trip wire… after another fake pressure plated arrow trap but all the arrows were thankfully blunt and would only cause some bruising. He then went on and thought about loot before making the boss and placed three chests made of stone before the boss room which supposed have a chest of its own. The first was in the long room with the arrow traps on the cliff in plain view, another was in the rocky room hidden in the North Western corner and the final was hidden by a massive rock in the hallway to the boss room but inside the reach of the barrage of arrows.

Tier has decided what the boss is going to be after a bit of thinking and he decided on another greater cave serpent but he tried something with this one. Firstly, he modified the serpent with some small modifications… he tripled its size to 2ft wide and 24ft long, gave it a large hood like the blood viper to increase intimidation, gave it a core crystal similar to a slime. He also messed with the brain a lot, increased efficiency a lot, gave in better protective scales… a lot better protective scales, improve its poison by mixing it with the paralysis poison but also made it easy to evaporate for one simple reason, he gave it poison spray and through some thinking theorized that instead of spraying venom it with create a mist of poison gas that will enter the lungs and paralyze the victims but only after a long period and giving them a timer to work with to defeat the thing.

Once he spawned the modified boss, he saw the thing first-hand being a beautiful specimen with its greyish white scales perfectly blending with the cave walls but he also experimented with some other things before he actually gave it a conscience since he himself does not want to hurt the poor creature if his experiment goes wrong in any way possible. He covered it in a lot of blood moss, force feed it both blood moss, some other plants, etc… and the kobolds were looking at him weirdly from it. After some more stuff, he mentally asked for the creature to become a boss and a large light covered the entire serpent as its whole body shone in light whilst it was in the pool.

After a while, the boss of the first floor revealed itself being a 4ft by 51ft gigantic serpent with a beautiful azure-greyish-white scale pattern, large serpentine aquatic like frills, strong muscular serpentine body, with red slashes running along it’s body where the moss was put. The thing looked fine so he gave it a conscious and it awoke slowly but steadily taking in its environment and Tier only giggled in semi-madness as he looked at the stats the boss has:

Name: None

Gender: Hermaphrodite

Species: ???(Boss)

Age: 1 minute

Stats:

Strength - 103

Perception - 64

Endurance - 101

Dexterity - 33

Intelligence – 72

Wisdom – 24

Charisma – 54

Creativity - 27

Destiny – 33

Mysticism – 21

Karma – 9

Willpower – 34

Traits: Infared vision, Lesser Darkvision, Keen Awareness, Venom (venom is capable of paralyzing victims heavily whilst also hampering blood clotting and stacks with repeated injections which may result to organ failure but strong poison resistance will hamper the effect alongside paralysis resistance); Poison immunity, Paralysis immunity (user is immune to paralysis of any kind); Acid Immunity (user is immune to acid damage), Bloodletting immunity (user is unaffected by any bloodletting effects); Lesser Regeneration (user regains health at a 20% increased rate every hour; Regains 0.2% of total health every 6 seconds, 60% Max Health Reserves), Amphibious (user can breath and move around better underwater), Magic Sense (allows the creature to sense beings from 100ft away using the mana in the air, can work through illusions or invisibility), Azure Armored Scales (increased protection against both physical and magic sources, ???)

Skills: Stillness (lv.10), Sudden Strike (lv.10), Intimidation (lv.10), Poison Breath (lv.5) (user let’s out a breath of poison allowing the gas to consume their victims, effects depend on venom or poison)

Abilities: Communication (lv.5), Stealth (lv.10), Lesser Natural Regeneration (lv.10), Frenzy (lv.5), Pain Reduction (lv.15)

Proficiencies: Bite (proficient), Tail Attack (amateur), Breath Weapon (proficient)

Magic Type: Arcane

Magic Potential: 5

Mana Affinity: Dark (lv.3), Water (lv.4)

Threat Ranking: 27.7

‘well then, a bit basic but then I plan to have flowing underground water tunnels connected to allow them to slip into or attack out of which should increase efficiency by a lo…’ Tier’s thoughts trialed off as he thought about all the little things he could do to… to put it in his terms: ‘continue to fuck with people’

…

‘… I went a little overboard didn’t I? challenging but fair my ass, I went way overboard and created something that only exists in a murder hole… I probably should’ve asked Aenirus about how strong a first floor of a dungeon is’ Tier thought as he regained his senses ‘what’s done is done… I should greet them now’ tier thought

“greetings there… how are you” ‘ah sh!t, my terrible conversation starting skills returned’ Tier thought as he greeted the creature calmly “… I feel… fine… my lord” the thing responded in a voice that seems to be more male in some words and more female in other ‘ah good, the vocal cords and messing with the brain before creating the creature experiments worked wonders, but seriously, lord?’

“you do know what you are right?” Tier asked as diplomatically as he could “yes… my lord, I am the final guardian of the first floor, the currently only boss in the dungeon” they said calmly “well then, your orders are simply, defend the dungeon but do not leave the room unless there are no intruders or I order you to, also do not attack friendlies or any allies” He ordered and they only nodded “I will try my best to meet your expectations… lord Tier” ‘seriously, the differing ways in which my creatures revere me is… nice but wrong at the same time but… I can’t really change their way of thinking can I’ Tier thought to himself before making some final changes to the boss room.

He added four other pools of water with one in the middle of the room and other in the other three corners that doesn’t hold a pool already connected by tunnels 6ft wide whilst the pool themselves were 20ft wide and connect to each other making the perfect place to retreat or ambush from for the boss which after he added they started to practice a lot as well.

‘I should give them, the cr… blood viper and pretty much everyone else without one a name as well’ Tier thought as he was now making a network of tunnels big enough even for a Yao Guai to travel in connecting every room and hallway on the first floor but only being enterable via secret doors which can only be opened by very specific ways for his creatures to move in.

You may be wondering where Ruma, Kaide, Verk, Taika, the kobolds, Aenirus, Blackie, the blood viper and the others were stationed at but Tier made a secret room with the same volume as the boss room being 100ft by 100ft by 30ft and put everything from before there with many passage way leading to the general room where everyone stays at instead of him as he checks back with the rest in the large private room…

“why did all of you take the same evolutionary path?” Tier asked the kobolds “well… we only had two evolutionary paths and once was garbage so… we took the better one” Kaide answered his question. The kobolds don’t really seem much different, their ears are a bit bigger, they have a pair of horns and grew a couple inches especially Kaide who was 5ft 3inches now which is… very large compared to a regular kobold.

“right… what about her?” Tier pointed out the sole kobold Taika who seemed different from the pack with no change in size, feathers throughout her body instead of scales and the dark blue and black scale pattern different from the reddish brown of the others “oh, she got a different evolution for some reason but didn’t have the one everyone else has so she picked it instead of the terrible one” Verk answered as he continued to mix different ingredients in a pot over fire which Tier gave him for him to experiment on.

“what’s the terrible evolution?” Tier asked another question “they said it is one that turns kobold into feral beasts or something similar” This time Aenirus provided the answer beating out the kobolds “let’s see what makes you different…” Tier said as he checked her status…

Name: Taika

Gender: Female

Species: Feathered Kobold (more intelligent, more mystical but physically weaker than standard kobolds whilst also lacking their protective scales)

Age: 3-days old

Stats:

Strength - 18

Perception - 31

Endurance - 16

Dexterity - 31

Intelligence - 33

Wisdom - 22

Charisma - 15

Creativity - 11

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Destiny - 13

Mysticism - 39

Karma - 15

Willpower - 9

Traits: Darkvision, Keen Awareness, Infrared Vision

Skills: Fleet footed (lv.6)

Abilities: Poison Resistance (lv.6)

Proficiencies: Trap making (amateur), Knifes (novice), Spears (trained), Javelins (amateur), Mana Manipulation (amateur), Mana Channeling (novice)

Arts: Aimed Thrust (lv.4)

Magic Type: none

Magic potential: 6

Elemental Affinity: Electricity (lv.4), Air (lv.3)

Threat Ranking: 1.21

“wow, that is a surprisingly high level of mana affinities there…” Tier said “what was the requirements for the feathered kobolds?” Tier asked “uhhhh… two different elemental affinities with at least one being level two… and… an intelligence score and mysticism score of 20 or higher” Taika answered truthfully if not a bit unsure herself… “so you know how to use magic?” Tier asked her again “kind of… I er… accidentally caused my spear to discharge electricity in the fight against that… big thing” She answered truthfully ‘so that’s why her spear looked a bit different during the fight…’ Tier thought before heading to Aenirus.

“Aenirus, can I ask you a favor?” Tier asked “sure, depends on what kind of favor” was Aenirus’s response “can you teach my creatures how to magic? I have at least three with some good elemental affinities”

“of course, magic is fun and should be shared by everyone, isn’t that right Ruma?” the young wyvern nodded enthusiastically “we shouldn’t use our powers for bad, we should share them or at least protect those whom are weaker” she directed at the wyvern which nodded even more enthusiastically ‘… do not piss Aenirus off… note taken’

It took a few minutes for word to spread, for the creatures to move, for Tier to spawn six vespers in the long cliff before every creature that wants to learn about magic including critters and the boss got to the designated magic learning area to the North East of the private room which Tier expanded upon which also netted him some sand for some odd reason…

“before I Aenirus the teacher for magic for this session begin the teaching, may I ask Tier about how he created the I don’t know Threat Rank 26 boss in front of me now?” Aenirus asked sternly yet calmly “didn’t I tell you that the first floor boss should be about threat rank 7.5 and then increase the threat tank by about 2.5 for every floor?” She added with unusual coldness in her tone “… I got a bit carried away but I got a plan to address that... also you didn’t” Tier replied “oh… sorry than, my bad” Aenirus apologized on her accusation.

“okay… what’s done is done, before we start of, I’m going to need to name a few of you so I can actually differentiate you guys in class and also to get your attention” Aenirus explained “I know that I don’t have to but saying blood viper or first floor boss doesn’t sit right in my mind so… each of you give yourself a name because if you can remember I am terrible at naming stuff”

Pretty much all the denizens looked towards the direction of Tier’s presence which made him sweat a bit if he had any sweat glands “don’t look at me, just pick a name or something” he let out in desperation “but a name is a symbol of power for any monster my lord” the boss crashed his hope “yeah, it isn’t something you choose for yourself” Taika added.

“well… fine, we’ll figure something else out later… boss your name is… Asur, blood viper your name is… erm… you see the problem here… Kirja, Batra already has a name… so does Kaide, Taika… also Verk and the other kobolds as well… Ruma is here as well… so is Blackie… next up is a… wall gecko? Wait let me check… okay you do have level 3 ice affinity… your name is… Klaki, another critter is up next…

It took him another fifteen minutes to coming up with names for the… entire dungeon population since almost everyone has at least some point of mana affinity and the ones that don’t… do not want to be force fed poisonous mushrooms by Kaide over at his end. “FU… SCREW IT! I’m not making any more names unless you do something special, name each other or wait for others to give you names, I’m done with this SHIT!” tier screamed and stormed off after over 30 names given.

“alright then… with Tier rage quitting, I can start the session now, so first of is the basics of mana manipulation” Aenirus started “usually, it takes years to master… but I know you guys do not have the time or energy for that but thankfully for my sanity and your time… you guys are dungeon monsters so you should be able to manipulate your inner mana or the mana surrounding you easily so just imagine an invisible force flowing throughout yourself or in the air and imagine yourself guiding that force with your own mind. Give it a go, if you don’t succeed than no worries, not everyone can do it in their first try… okay it is impossible to succeed on your first try and even if you succeed you can’t really feel it so keep trying mentally until you feel something click”

…

Aenirus waited a few minutes before some of the applicants finally opened their eyes from concentrating and looked pleased “excellent, I knew you guys could do it quickly, it was a theory of mine but it worked so it worked” Aenirus also celebrated a bit “*ahem*anyways, now that some of you already succeeded at the first stage, the others that haven’t succeeded yet can keep trying as I explain the next stage. Thankfully, this step is hopefully less time consuming as it requires you to channel the mana you can now manipulate into actual elemental mana either from inside your own reserves or from the air around you. I will explain the difference here, channeling mana from your reserves can drain you and leave you unconscious after constant exhausting usage so is ill advised but it is faster and a slight bit stronger than just channeling from the air which is slower. To channel mana to elemental energies, just imagine the combustion of fire, the earth rising, the poison sailing through the air, the winds blowing… imagine doing something with your mana based on an elemental affinity you have and imagine the mana travelling to the spot there before forming into… something of your affinity…. As you keep training, your proficiency in mana manipulation, magic channeling and elemental affinity to a certain element will increase over time so just keep trying. To help you, imagine channeling the mana to a small ball in front of your head and imagine the elemental energies doing… something and the rest should be by instincts since dungeon creatures have a lot of cheats that makes life way easier”

Aenirus waited a while before anyone was able to channel their mana into anything at all but soon the first pioneers arrived. Firstly, it was Asur forming a small ball of clear water near the gem on their… forehead which Aenirus just noticed. Then, it was Taika forming an electrical ball of light before dissipating it and trying out one of her other elements. Soon, everyone followed with Ruma being one of the last alongside Kaide and another kobold named Meena.

“okay, if you checked your status screens you should see a few new proficiencies alongside spells, spells are whatever you can do with your magic based on your elements, there are spell levels which dictate the strength and mana cost of the spell but currently none of you should have any spells that aren’t a cantrip which are spells that are basically free in terms of mana cost but are very limited in function or power. I will not get into detail on what spells you can learn because that requires actual experimentation and work and also know that there is a spell language used by mages as well and if you are able to chant your spells than the spells will do more at less cost but casting without chanting is still very viable and the only reason you guys are able to do this is because you guys are dungeon creatures” Aenirus finished her lectures

“now, go out there and start experimenting and whilst you people were channeling or manipulating mana, I asked Tier to make a copy of two things, a book on how to magic and a book on magic for beginners both of which were stolen from a magical academy by yours truly on my quest to improve my acid magic enough to get some acid immunity trait so I can hug slimes” She said proudly.

“Aenirus… I do not intend to… insult your wisdom but… none of us know how to read or speak any actual language other than draconic…” Asur stated which made Aenirus tilt her head “wait… I know I’ve been speaking only middish so how are you guys able to understand me?” she asked confused but all of them just shrugged and didn’t comment on it.

…

“excuse me or a second” Tier suddenly said ‘is there some kind of translation effect thingy in my dungeon?’ Tier asked the system mentally.

Dungeons and dungeon creatures naturally understand any language or speech that has meaning, this is why most dungeons don’t write any words but use symbols instead.

‘can you turn that effect off?’

Affirmative, translation effect is now off.

“Testaa, testaatko ymmärrätkö minua?” (Testing, Testing can you understand me?) Tier asked but only to get confused look from everyone else. “I't understand thou” Aenirus responded “Quod omnes vos dicitis?” “Nonpossum intellegere verbum unum” “Veniam in me?” were some of the responses from the kobolds “domine mi ... maybe conversus experimentum illud super” came Asur’s response

‘ok, käännä kääntäjä takaisin päälle’ (okay, turn the translator back on) Tier asked the advisor.

Affirmative, translation effect is now on.

“okay, I turned the translator back on...” Tier aid “and it turns out we are completely fucked if we don’t have it on” “I agree, I couldn’t understand even the kobolds and I myself know draconic” Aenirus added “same here” Galdra added “me too” Taika also added “okay… can I ask you another favor Aenirus?” Tier asked her hesistantly not wanting to rely on her too heavily “I mean… I don’t have anything better to do and I haven’t laughed this much in years so… sure!” Aenirus agreed enthusiastically.

The rest of day 3 and day 4 passed by in a blur, no one wants to really talk about it but the end result was well known as everyone got a basic understanding on how to understand and speak Middish the common language of the middlelands where they are situated. Taika was exceptional when it comes to understanding languages learning extraordinarily quickly being completely fluent in just 5 hours… no one asked why for many different reasons… she even became fully fluent in draconic and even some of the languages common in the Garrick empire nearby to the West, even Tier’s own language.

Aenirus does not know how she even taught enough for most to be somewhat fluent in Middish by the end of the day but the kobolds can finally understand each other in draconic now and so does some others. It was a long day with many different problems that popped up in class as Aenirus also juggled in teaching them a bit more about magic like how you would need a spell focus which can be anything you personally relate to and she tried as best as she could to make it fun.

As day 5 arrived, Aenirus observed her teaching ability rose from a measly level 2 to a whopping level 68 from a whole two days of somehow teaching people from complete novices to at the very least beginners that understand the subject and after all that she flopped down as darkness overtakes her.

Day 5…

‘I really do need to repay her somehow’ Tier thought as she watched Aenirus sleep as she curled up into a ball of floof “hey Ruma, snuggle with her, it’s your punishment for sleeping in class” Tier ordered and the wyvern obliged quickly without issue ‘at least he listens to me now… I had to discipline him a bit… he probably wouldn’t forget that too soon’

Tier looked at the kobolds preparing in a new room he recently made to the north of the entrance. The kobolds were busy readying their equipment alongside two new modified monitors he created, Kirja who is currently coiled around Taika and two Vespers including Batra. Kaide was busy sharpening his two handed bronze sword with a whet stone which was something Tier taught him to do, Verk was practice swinging his sling around, Taika was doing some sort of mana control thingy Aenirus taught the lot, etc…

The kobolds were preparing for a trip to collect some materials from the outside “remember, anything that isn’t nailed down, hard to extract, difficult to take apart or too dangerous is off limits, anything else is fair game and remember to use the new equipment I provided well” Tier reminded them “Kaide I in charge of the whole operation so you all should follow him and listen to him… unless he gives out a selfish or idiotic order but I don’t think that will happen” He added.

The kobolds only nodded, Tier provided them with bronze weaponry alongside some woven twig baskets, leather packs, some sacks and bronze gathering tools like axes, shovels, picks, etc… to get the job done. “I wouldn’t want to go out either but we’re kind of limited in what we have so it is a necessity to go out and gather some stuff, also make sure to take a few of everything and if you see any other creatures with weapons or armor than run away back to the dungeon immediately” he reminded them again for the fourth time.

“Tier, I doth no thank you’ve need to remind us” Kaide said with a annoyed tone in broken Middish as he himself was not fluent at all and Tier turned off the translator so everyone can practice all the time “it’s ‘do not think you’ not whatever you just said” Taika fixed the error and threw a mock punch Kaide “Shaddup, we were nott arr prodagess” Kaide threw one back at her “alright, as much as I want to listen to some drama, you guys got orders to do so chop chop, move it boys and gals” Tier cut off any further conversations and the team moved out.

The thirteen of them moved out with Kaide with his two handed sword, pick and his leadership abilities; Taika with her magic from her stone spear as a spell focus; Hraeta wielding two bronze daggers and a short handaxe on her belt; Galdra with his spear and shovel; Verk bearing some healing supplies and carrying a sling for ranged support; Meena with her spear and pick; Parl with his sword, javelins and shovel; Barmes with her spear and pick; The two monitors still unnamed being there to help carry any loads or help in combat; Batra and another unnamed vesper there for scouting and Kirja being there as… a mascot? Emotional support? Who knows…

‘I mean… hopefully they can handle themselves and if they don’t… they can respawn and I noticed that the three kobolds that lost their lives didn’t lose any equipment when respawning so that’s nice… though I did give them bronze weaponry except Taika who made her original stone spear as her spell focus so that’s nice…’ Tier thought ‘I’m feeling I am forgetting something here… ARMOR! FUCK I FORGOT ABOUT ARMOR!... I mean… hopefully they’ll be fine… hopefully’

Tier the went back to trying to figure out how to actually make a second floor but decided to wait until the expedition came back or for Aenirus to wake up to try anything drastic. He turned to the boss room where Asur is practicing their water magic “@#$!#!%!!!” They finished chanting in some unknown language before four bolts of water forming near the gem on their forehead race off whilst spinning creating three 4 inch small dents on the south wall.

“so, it appears you do not like the helmet” Tier commented about the helmet he made for them causing Asur to hastily drop their next spell chant and the water bullets fizzled out into nothingness “I am sssssorry my lord, I go back to wearing it” they swear “no need, if you don’t want it, you don’t wear it, I’ll put it in my inventory” Tier reassured them “you are too kind to me my lord” Asur thanked him gratefully.

“so… I came here to talk about the boss room here…” Tier said “let me be real with you, you are way too powerful for a first floor boss which I made by accident so… you don’t need to actually… fight and kill any challengers” “really my lord?” Asur shockingly asked not quite the confused expression he thought he would get but one of anticipation.

“of course… you are a boss so you must challenge any who enters… so I was thinking… your mental stats are pretty high… your room is large… I am thinking of two possible routes here” Tier started “we could either have you come up with some sort of mental talking challenge that needs to be beaten chosen by you or I put keys required to open the door connecting to the next room around the room in places so they could get pass you via that way whilst you just… toy with them” he suggested.

“you honor me my lord” Asur seemed speechless “I… what?” “I… have no dessssire to kill, I do not want to ssssssspill any blood, the fact that my lord knowssssss about that is truly amazing” Asur started “I am ssssssso enlightened to have you assssss my lord and I thank you for taking this one’sssss selfish conssssssiderationssssss to heart”

“ermmm… yes… I definitely know you were a… aseistakieltäytyjä… so I thought about making challengies in which you need not to kill” Tier lied his @$$ of ‘I mean… I’m not going to change their views… also having a pacifist as a boss is… worrying but that’s for the future’ he thought.

“so, I’m thinking of three possible ways in which you would challenge or protect the way to my core, firstly is a question or riddle system in which they have to answer correctly to pass, secondly is that you harass them whilst they try and find keys to open a door to the next floor and finally is the third option which is to just simply kill them but I know you don’t like that option now so technically just two options” Tier listed.

“why not all three my lord?” Asur suggested “if they come in peace or approach with caution but not aggressssssssion than I will ask them three riddlessssss which all must be ansssssswered correctly before moving on. If they attack me or try getting passssssed me whilssssst failing the riddle than the second option of me harasssssssing them occurssssss assssss they look for keyssssss. Finally, if they come to kill me, my lord or come to caussssse harm than I have no problemsssss in tearing them limb from limb and painting their blood on the wallssssss”

…

“great idea, so you’re an… aseistakieltäytyjä who isn’t defenseless and are willing to bare their fangs at threats where talking just won’t do” Tier applauded the serpent’s decision “I like it, I’ll make a key system where they need to insert three gems to make a stone door open with a gem already in so they know what to look for and multiple gems in the room so there are multiple ways to get one rather than there being only three” he started brainstorming with ideas with Asur.

…

“again, I mussssst thank you for consssssssideing my decisionssssss my lord” “no need Asur, I’m just a normal person, someone who constantly make mistakes… I’m no hero or god or lord or whatever… just some random dungeon core that starts with some memories of someone long dead from some other universe or this one with his memories blockers starting to fail… I might even be a bad person in my past life and I’m honestly scared of what will happen if I actually remembers everything… will I even still be Tier myself…” Tier accidentally let too much out “it isssss okay my lord, either way… you are here now and I will follow you to the end of the world” Asur tried to comfort him by gently coiling around his presence before realizing they themselves cannot touch a presence.

“thanks Asur, I’m glad I got all of you and picked the traits I picked… imagine you yourself being just a statue that kills whenever something enters your room… I’m extra glad that I picked those two traits up or you or the others might not even exists… sorry for venting my inner frustrations out but… it’s just that I didn’t want Aenirus or the others to hear this for some reason… I’m very happy for my life right now and I really wouldn’t want it to change but… life is life and as a dungeon I feel this deep inner desire to keep growing… to feed… to kill and… sorry, this went on for way too long already” Tier admitted.

“it issssss okay my lord, from my very short life… even I know that it isssss good to let it all out from time to time lord Tier” Asur comforted him “yeah… I’m going to stop being dramatic now and get on this key system thingy, would you mind if I ask yo…” and they went on with designing the new boss system for the first floor without any care in the world… little did they know that Aenirus listened to the whole conversation and found it sweet… little did they know that they wouldn’t be seeing anyone from the expedition anymore…

…

…

…For a couple of hours

Extra: The Garrick Empire to the West… isn’t actually an Empire… more of a republic or confederation between five major nations and many minor city states and smaller nations. They call themselves an Empire... for no reason whatsoever… no Garrickians complain about it though as they themselves find being in an empire feels more stylish or something…