Day 991

I posted my new floors yesterday and they are being explored, the news has boiled the Adventurer's Guild. While I was gone, many things happened. The guild's contract has expired and they are now in competition with other guilds. The dungeon is starting to be renowned for its rapid growth and abundant rewards which attracts a few adventurers.

The new guild leader reformed his organization and became a respected leader in his midst.

The city's population hasn't grown much in the past six months, but it has grown richer mainly because of the war. Indeed, a month ago, the kingdom declared war on its neighbor to the west, supposedly to liberate its people, the count took the opportunity to try to obtain merits by selling weapons at low prices, the blacksmiths took the opportunity to organize themselves into several guilds and produce more.

The elixirs that I had prepared saved the lives of three counts and a marquis which attracted their favors to the count, the others were used by less important military leaders.

The other big winners of this war are the slums, the population which had stopped growing almost doubled to reach 25,000 in particular because of the opening of four new entrances in the mine to support the needs of the blacksmiths, bringing the total to eight. There are, permanently, thousands of miners in the galleries and guts of the iron mine, no one makes a precise count so no one notices the disappearance of two dozen men per day. The artificial cores have gradually increased this figure over the past six months, a quarter of this figure is due to conflicts between minors, I am still recovering their souls.

Speaking of souls, I should reach 5,000 souls in a few days. I further increase the depth of the mine, the slums are gradually organized around the mine, located one kilometer from the city walls. The slums are now divided into 13 different neighborhoods, each run by a gang leader. They specialize in different fields and are starting to drain the region's gut, the black market is already flourishing and promising to improve further.

The count is very careful that the slum does not extend towards the city and to increase the size of the guard. It is time that I strengthen him if he wants to be able to defend himself from the new adventurers who will arrive.

Humanoid bats are ready to be upgraded, and the Earl eventually found me a soul of dark affinity through the slum black market. I immediately place her in the library to begin research.

The Church tried to conquer the slums but they quickly returned to the city, without success. Conversely, a guild of thieves, assassins and demonic cults have fully established themselves, several evil organizations are also present. To keep them under control, I currently have 500 undercover minions. When I have fully developed the humanoid bats I will replace them.

The queen has benefited a lot from the mana source but is still not ready to evolve.

Day 992

I begin to change the count and his guards, I take the same physical shape but I improve its competence s persuasion and bargaining, I add hypnosis, brainwashing, and several objects to facilitate its missions. I also give him an unstoppable memory and a very high intelligence. For the guards, I use the same model as before, ten knights, this time of rank C + with a complete enchanted equipment of good quality.

Assassins are further dehumanized with longer limbs a dual affinity of darkness and wind, with espionage and assassination skills as well as camouflage, they are also C + rank and are four.

Finally, the Magi, rather than starting from a human body and demonizing it, I start from a demonic body that I humanize, I give them a higher affinity different to each one, but only the six elemental affinities. The cores continued to develop many spells and I teach them all the apprentice and beginner level spells in their domain, they also acquired a few intermediate level spells, the same as the previous guards they are at rank C + .

I also provide the count with 10 new essences of youth.

Day 997

I then go to humanoid bats, I take the current model and finish the work started, I remove all the signs of bats on the limbs, then the torso, and finally the head. I have to change their name and I call them Vampires, vampires are pale and do not have great physical strength, I have given them great control over blood by improving their affinity to darkness and water. They can survive as long as they have blood inside their body and can control it from a distance.

For the first time I managed to impart enough magic for them to transform, they can cause sharp claws to appear on their hands and fangs in their mouths. These fangs allow them to bite their enemies, they feed on this blood and can take control of their victims.

Through my research into souls and the evil organization's surrender ritual, I was able to give them an incredible skill. They can suck blood from their victims and inject some of their own blood back into the bodies of their victims. After that the target will fall under their full control two or three days later, with no behavioral or physical change.

The vampires may then decide to inject some of their own blood back, and be severely weakened for a week, which will turn the victim into a vampire during a painful five-day process. If the vampires don't do anything the target will live normally before starting to experience intense bloodlust after two months and gradually going mad, I don't know what happens after that.

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I release about fifty vampires in the slums by warning the count, I will recycle my servants as and when. Vampires are very weak when he transforms a victim into a vampire so I advise them not to do so, I also advise them not to be discreet so as not to frighten the slums. The church could find them easily if it knew their affinity with darkness.

Day 1003

The first adventurers have reached the end of the fifteenth floor, the guild is both excited by this new wealth, but also a little panicked by the sudden growth.

I gradually resume my current experiences, always the demonic invocation and their soul, but also how to use the source of mana. The source of mana has not disappeared and the small pool is no longer dry, there are no more crystals but the high concentration of mana is still present. I have no clue as to the cause of this source, but it benefits me. Finally the last experience which begins to be urgent is the condensation of my core which has already reached 193 meters in diameter.

I got 5000 human souls, so I summon a medium demon and sign the contract, I have to provide a hundred Knowledge Crystals to contain everything and then I let him go.

When I absorb one of the crystals, I feel that all my senses slow down at the immensity of the data, there are 100 crystals! To my horror all the data is scattered in each crystal. If I had tears I would cry, I stock the crystals and make some adjustments to the top five floors of the dungeon, including the top floor reward, a 2 ton solid silver throne.

Adventurers are barely able to lift it as only C-ranks can defeat the Fifteenth Floor Guardian, but the problem is at the exit, a 2 ton solid silver throne is nothing low key. It attracts unnecessary attention so I replace it with a gemstone necklace of the same value, 500 gold.

Day 1004

The adventurers are less numerous than I thought, it is because of the war, they are employed as mercenaries.

The Earl still hasn't found a dungeon core and I have no idea how to condense mine, I am thinking about attacking another dungeon and when I look at the map the closest is four days away from it. on the other side of the border, the problem is that there is already a city built and that it has reached 20 floors.

I then look for a low-level dungeon not very well defended, my target appears quickly, a dungeon two weeks away, discovered five years before month, it is not very productive and contains only 4 floors with goblins, only one village has could develop, without reaching the rank of city. I never understood why the crown did not take the initiative to feed a dungeon.

I gave life to a city of 30,000 inhabitants (55,000 with the slums) thanks to the help of my servants, providing various specimens free of charge would allow it to grow faster. I believe it is because of experiences like this that have gone wrong in the past that no one wants to turn the central continent into a new lost continent.

I think about who I might send and decide to put the ants in charge. They immediately begin to dig 300 meters underground in a straight line towards the core room. Depending on the geological formations encountered, they should take 3 to 6 months.

I begin to slowly absorb the knowledge of crystals, one by one, piece by piece, I faint at several times under the weight data but I persist for knowledge.

Day 1010

The duration of human pregnancy has passed below average in the city, like monsters or all living organisms exposed to mana, the human body is getting stronger. Humans are born on average after eight months in this world, in some capitals where mana is more condensed, pregnancy only lasts seven months, unlike in the most remote countryside it reaches nine months. The city has therefore just reached the eight-month average.

I have finished absorbing all the knowledge crystals and am starting to decipher them. My computational capacity has greatly increased with my new floors but understanding everything that the demon has passed on to me will take time.

I am now classified as a C rank dungeon by the city adventurer guilds.

I tried to move the mana source but I can't, it is connected to the nodes that make up this world. Even though my regeneration would be greater if the source was closer, it is still very useful. I'm trying to find other sources but I can't.

I take an inventory of all the models of living things I own and the ants have done well for the six months. I now have Trolls, Eagles, Arachnids, Chimeras, Harpies, Lizardmen, Kobolds, all the animals, insects, and plants in the area as well as all monsters below B rank.

They even brought back an ogre who had strayed from his tribe, my next five floors will be inhabited by trolls then, the following ones by ogres. Trolls are even less intelligent than orcs but more powerful, above all, they have a spectacular regeneration, ogres on the other hand are very intelligent, just as strong, but more cruel, they are also adepts of magic.

I am no longer making progress in the search for soul paintings so I wait to decipher what the intermediate demon gave me before resuming the search.

The ant tunnel is moving fast and they have formed a simple strategy to retrieve the cores, enter the main chamber and steal the cores before fleeing and destroying the tunnel.

Day 1011

I noticed that the alchemy does not progress anymore, I only have magic plants without affinity and some potions need specific plants. I therefore divide the alchemical garden into Eight square rooms of 1 kilometer per side each, positioned in a circle, they surround a central square room of 3 kilometers per side. I set up all of the classic magic plants in the center room and build a smaller square room 1 kilometer per side under it where I place the demonic plants.

The garden has been massively enlarged so I have to overhaul the gardeners, they have become obsolete. The rooms surrounding the central room are meant to accommodate plants of different affinities, I can produce small amounts of affinity mana but not enough to grow valuable magical plants.

There are runes for each affinity, so with the help of the artificial cores and the library I form a small array of runes that allows me to improve my efficiency in producing affinity mana.

Using these tables, I create affinity gems larger than usual, 3 centimeters in diameter. I then integrate these gems into the affinity table in order to improve it. This allows me to create bigger and bigger gems while wasting less and less mana when converting.

Little by little, the size of the gems and therefore the efficiency of the tables improves.

Day 1026

Finally I obtained gems of 50 centimeters in diameter, with these gems I can build paintings that cover all the walls, ceiling and floor of the eight different rooms in the garden. Each room has a different, albeit similar, board and over 500 gems. Little by little, the ambient mana is modified by the table and the interior of the pieces changes to be in accordance with the affinity of the gems present. I have spaced the rooms enough so that the tables do not interfere with each other. I also placed darkness in front of light, heat in front of cold, earth in front of water, and nature in front of air.