Ok so the class equipment is apparently insanely good. I thought it was a bit powerful, which is why I gated it behind progression, but this is a little much. I’ve already had to adjust the drop rates twice and made it so that you need both a progression reward to unlock the gear and pay a price in EC. The silver value of my Eternal Coins has increased by 500%. Luckily the distraction of everyone scrambling to get the class gear gives me ample time to finish my next floor.

The fourth floor entry would be placed to the east and would require the defeat of the eastern boss to enter. The goblin village of Hokoto was already kind of a raid area due to its construction. Although it was possible with a party of five so long as you were careful and lowered the goblins numbers before attacking the main village. So far no one had beaten the Hobgoblin Shaman and his warriors and I wanted to finish the floor before someone did.

I decided to start with an entrance point. I chose the end of the flooded caves that were the source of water for Hokoto Village as my entrance for the next floor. I then added a seamless portal that would transition you from the end of the cave to the start of another cave on the fourth floor. I would have the entrance look like one was walking through the mountains that made up the back of the goblin village.

I had already spatially expanded the fourth floor earlier so I could get to work immediately. I made a large mountain that looked like the backside of the one Hokoto was built into. I made sure that the entrance cave was at the same height in this mountain as its matching cave was on the second floor. I used similar terrain features to make sure they matched up well before moving on to what I had planned for the floor.

The Fourth Floor would resemble a modified badlands. Large formations of weathered rock would create dozens of valleys and peaks with the entire environment being very dry and hot. The flora and fauna would be forced to survive mainly within the valleys where what little water there is collects into small streams. I planned on creating hobgoblin strongholds over every reliable source of water with the goal of the floor to be raiding these strongholds.

With my plan in place I got started. I filled the bottom half of the floor with rock and started carving away at it to create the desired effect. I left the entrance mountain mostly untouched by the weathering but I did give it a more eroded look than its counterpart. After a few hours of careful sculpting I had created a network of cracks in the ground surrounded by steep stone cliffs. I created several large nexus points where these cracks would intersect and create large areas perfect for a fortress.

Next I started on the weather. I made it a dry climate with high winds and little to no rain almost like a rocky desert. I ensured that the sun here was harsh and hot, beating down upon the rock with impunity. I pushed some extra magic into the air to create a magical weather effect, like one would find in a high magic zone.

To my mana sight the effect was simply a slow build up of fire mana that was eventually released into a roiling wave that rapidly crossed the entire floor before dissipating at the edges. The practical effect was much different. The sky would start turning a deep red for several minutes and the wind would grow more agitated. Then a huge burst of wind would emit from the center of the floor followed by an intense heatwave that made the stone glow red and superheated the air. The heatwave only lasted a moment, but would likely kill anything that wasn’t sheltered by the deep valleys between the rock.

I wondered how my environment was able to access fire mana despite me lacking the affinity for it so I started checking through things to see what was different. I noticed something changing within the preset Sun that I had copied from the system, the fire mana inside it was far greater than the other versions. I had already been aware that by copying pre-made things from the systems catalog I could access affinities I didn’t have, I just didn’t realize it was to this extent. I still couldn’t use the affinity directly but having access to other types early would help me determine which ones I wanted first.

Satisfied with my magical heatwave I moved on to the water. I created several deep ground springs at the largest nexus points of the valleys. They would bubble up into a decently sized pool before evaporating due to the intense heat. I made sure to design the floor so that each of the springs was at the lowest points of its connected valleys. This would make a natural slope that would cause what little rain there was to all collect at these points.

Next I built up the fortresses. I dug large tunnels and caves into the cliffs that surrounded the oasis nexuses, creating large areas that were built into the walls of the cliffs. Next I used a mixture of stone and metal to create large imposing fortresses with defensible gates facing each valley. I made sure that the very top of the fortresses were just below the cliffs to keep them safe from the heatwave.

Finally I created several steampunk mechanisms that could open gates, power weapons, etc. I made a whole ton of machinery that would be powered by steam. I spent several hours on this as I slowly experimented and worked out the kinks to ensure everything was working properly. I ended up changing directions once I learned I could use certain crystals to directly harness mana as a power source.

I still used the machinery, but now everything was fueled by the explosive power of fire mana. I created several fire mana collectors that would be intentionally extended above the cliffs to collect the abundant fire mana in the air. This also caused the heatwaves to happen less frequently as it took longer for the fire mana to build up. The collectors would have to be retracted whenever a heatwave was about to happen or else it would cause them to violently overload.

With my unliving scenery completed it was time to work on the flora. I first created a thin layer of soil and sediment over the entire floor then allowed the wind to naturally carry it to where it belonged. The result was most of the substrate piling up within the valleys between the cliffs, with a thin layer covering the cliffs themselves. It made it so that it would be nearly impossible for anything to grow outside of the protection of the valleys. With that ready it was time for the actual plants.

I started with an array of dry grasses in various shades of yellow and brown. Next I created prickly shrubs with sparse leaves that looked right at home in the barren landscape. I now had a decent coverage of low lying plants that helped bring a little life to the barren rock. Although all the yellows and browns were a bit dead looking, that was the look I was going for so it's fine.

Next I created some trees. I had a wide variety of short trees, as anything too tall would be annihilated by the environment. The trees finally brought some green to the landscape, but it was sparse. All the trees had a thin canopy of small leaves that were optimized for performance in the arid environment. I was forced to use mana to cheat a little bit as otherwise there was no way for larger plants to grow in the thin layer of soil.

I empowered all the trees with earth mana to allow them to pierce the rock and absorb minerals directly from them. The result was all my trees taking on rock like textures and colors, appearing to almost be made of stone themselves. A few of the trees near the fortresses even started to take on a metallic sheen. I spent a few moments simply observing how the mana interacted with the trees, watching the exchange between the plants and their environment. The trees seemed to take in mana as easily as they did air and water, cycling it through their roots, trunk, branches, and leaves.

I broke away from my trance of watching the mana flow and returned to working on the floor. I started working on a plant that I hadn’t seen yet on this world, but that I remembered from my own. Tumbleweeds were a nasty little bush that spread via rolling their corpses around and were well known for being massive fire hazards. Tumbleweeds terrorized the central corridor of the U.S.A. and they were impossible to get rid off completely. I wanted a menace like that for my dungeon.

The problem was that I would need to essentially make them from scratch. For all the other plants I’ve made I only needed to modify existing ones a little bit, but these are pretty unique. I would need to start with bush as my base template and then slowly work from there. I went to one of my sealed away experimentation rooms and began to set it up for testing. I would need a controlled environment and some time acceleration if I wanted this done in a timely manner.

I began with figuring out which bush template I had would work best. Lots of adventurers had given me random seeds and bits of plants via my sacrificial altar so I had lots to work with. I started by growing a bunch of different seeds that had potential, turning my experimental room into a greenhouse filled with branches and leaves. I found the ones that most resemble tumbleweeds and focused my efforts on them.

There were a total of three species that survived my rounds of elimination, each one had many of the traits of tumbleweeds. All of the bushes were short, round, and made of thin dry branches but each one also had some other distinct features. One of them was a large root system that periodically grew the bushes for reproduction and fed via grass-like leaves that stuck up out of the ground. Another was a large bush the size of a horse that was able to retract its roots and roll around to find nutrients and water. The final variant created tall bamboo like stalks and would grow round tumbles as a way to spread their seeds, similar to the first variant.

All of the variants had traits I liked and ones I didn’t like. I planned on only creating one tumbleweed at first, but I was torn between using the root plant that grew endless tumbles from it and the supersized tumbles that could pick up their roots. In the end I wanted to give both variants a try. The third variant, which I’m calling the Stalk tumble, had the best internal transportation system of all of them as well as the best leaves. I took those better bits from the

Stalk variant and melded them into the other two variants. I gave them some time to adapt to the new changes in the experiment room before introducing both variants into the fourth floor.

I started the variants in the inhospitable area that is the top of the cliffs. They actually did quite well in what little sandy soil there was up there. I time accelerated the whole floor for a few hours to watch all the plants develop. It was fun to watch life slowly overtake the barren areas. The Valleys were the most covered with plant life, with everything becoming greener the closer it got to one of the springs. The tops of the cliffs remained barren for the most part, but large patches of roaming tumbles could be seen rolling around.

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I brought the time acceleration back down and checked over everything with a more critical eye. It seems that the tumbles that lay down a large root structure have all died off excluding a few patches that made it into the valleys. However the valleys were a much more competitive environment for plant life which kept the tumbles in check for the most part.

The larger tumbles that retract their roots and roll around have managed to dominate the tops of the cliffs. They can even cross over the deep valleys by getting blown over by the extreme winds that persist in the open areas above the cliffs. I decided to call this variant Roaming Tumbles and the other one Rooted Tumbles. The Roaming Tumbles are doing well on the cliffs since they can move around to find the spots where the soil accumulates. They get their water by extending a special leaf type into their own shadows where water then condenses from the air.

I’ve also noticed that the Roaming Tumbles seem to be able to harness the abundant fire mana on the floor to supplement their biological needs. This has resulted in surrounding their tiny seeds in a structure that explodes, scattering the seeds to the wind. In fact, anytime the heatwave hits the floor all the Roaming Tumbles ignite in a fiery explosion that sends thousands of baby tumbles flying across the whole floor. Any that land in the valleys quickly die off from the lack of abundant fire mana, but the ones that stay in the cliffs above seem to survive.

The other thing I’ve noticed is that an interesting mana dynamic has been created. Fire mana fills the area above the cliffs and radates downwards in its attempts to spread out, but are stopped by the abundant earth mana that fills the valleys. The earth mana given off by all the cliffs and rock also insulates what little water mana there is from the fire mana above. I resolved myself to take fire mana as my next affinity as it seems very interesting to work with, I’ll probably do water and wind afterwards.

With the plants flourishing and the environment still in working order it's time to add the fauna. I needed to work from the bottom of the food chain up. I started with the microfauna as always, placing in the little insects and invertebrates that would make up the link in the chain. I slowly moved my way up, making sure to maintain the environment I was going for by only introducing creatures that would fit well.

Creatures resembling mountain goats along with various desert burrowers made up the herbivores. I added many different types of birds from roadrunner lookalikes to soaring buzzards. I pulled out any species that seemed to fit the environment and by the time I was done the valleys were brimming with wildlife. Maybe a bit too much wildlife, it was fine everything would balance itself out after time dilation.

Now for the true creatures of this floor, the ones who this entire floor will belong too. I pulled the hobgoblin template from my evolved goblins and got work with my modifications. First I pumped mana into them until I got to see what was next on the evolutionary track. The end result was a big, 7 foot tall, bulky green humanoid that looked like he did steroids. The tusks had become larger as well now poking well out of his mouth and facing forwards. I checked the tag to see what the system thought of it.

Orc (Superior) Level 40

Yeah that checks out. Good to know that orc’s are monsters and not considered a sapient race. Although they could be close to it and just haven’t developed enough to get classes due to being hunted. I know that my Spiritkin would have classes if not for the fact that they’re dungeon creatures. I move my attention back to the orc, it seems suitable for what I have planned for this floor but I want to do more tests first.

I make two more orcs for a total of three and place them in separate testing areas. I infuse each orc with one of my affinities until I force an evolutionary change or a lethal explosion. The Aether orc begins to rapidly condense until it resembles a hobgoblin in size and proportion, its skin turns a moldy green and its eyes turn pure white. The Wyld orc begins to grow until he’s about half again as large, going from 7 feet to around 10 feet tall with extra long limbs that hang strangely from his body. The Earth orc begins to grow as well until he’s twice as large at a staggering 15 feet tall, he loses all his hair and blunted spikes grow from his head and arms.

Redcap (Superior) Level 40

Troll (Superior) Level 40

Ogre (Superior) Level 40

Interesting, I actually recognize all of the names from fantasy but I’m not sure how well the troupes hold true for them. After a check of their status sheets I’m rather satisfied with my new creations. All of them appear to be higher end superior rank races meaning that they’ll be more potent than a more standard superior evolution. All of them have a way to express their affinities as well although its all natural ability as opposed to spellcraft. The Redcaps can teleport and slow their own time flow to increase their speed and reaction time. The Trolls can regenerate, really, really, well. The Ogres appear to be proper siege weapons using their earth affinity to empower their bodies, this makes them as tough as stone and gives their club-like arms the mass of solid rock.

Overall I think I’ve done a good job with this batch. I don’t want to add too many of these powerful variants in, but I do want a good amount. It’s time to start filling up my fortresses and educating my orcs on how they should behave. I start creating orcs and hobgoblins before stopping in my tracks. I almost forgot about bosses! I need a leader for each fortress and naturally each leader should be a legendary creature so that it’s a proper raid boss.

There are a total of twelve fortresses across the entire floor. It would be a bit expensive for all of them to have legendary bosses, but I do have quite the mana income so it should be possible. I set up a dungeon rule that will allow any monster recognized as the leader of the Fortress to be promoted to a boss and receive extra mana, overtime this would cause any boss that holds its position to eventually become legendary. My hope is that with this mechanic in place the bosses can be different each time people fight them.

With that in place I return to filling up all the fortresses. I place a large number of both orcs and hobgoblins as the base mobs, each fortress can easily fit a couple hundred individuals. I also create all the variants I made earlier and spread them out between various fortresses. I don’t want too many of the high rank monsters since I still want the floor to be doable, but at the same time it is a raid floor and it should be difficult to beat.

With my main monsters now roaming their new fortresses I start creating them gear while simultaneously preparing the memories of how I want them to act. I’m taking some heavy inspiration from the shadow of war games for my orcs, nothing is better than Australian and New Zealand Orcs. I also make sure to inform them of traditional orc pastimes, such as beating the crap out of each other and making things from scrap metal.

I open up my mind to my new mobs and leave them to get situated while I work on their equipment. I go heavy on the scrap motif, which makes all of their gear look like a cobbled together mass of edges and points. I am creating it with enough mana to make the equipment greater and superior quality. I make all of their equipment racial items so that adventurers can’t use them effectively, however I make sure most of it is of greater rank with only a few having superior rank items.

I then start working on the system integration features which will make this floor truly special. First and easiest is the raid system. All I have to do to set this up is expand my party system to allow four groups of five to integrate into a single raid of twenty. It takes a little work to make sure the party leader feature can be updated to raid leader but other than that it's a straightforward update. I set the new raid feature to be accessible to anyone who already has the party feature, they just have to get four parties together and choose a raid leader.

The next feature I want to work on is the loot for this floor. I want to have a mechanic where their progression trackers keep track of their contribution. Then individuals can use that contribution to buy the gear that they want. This way there isn’t a fight over loot since the contribution will be directly handled by the system. I spent several hours working on the contribution feature.

The system was surprisingly intuitive, yet that was necessary due to its enormous complexity. `Coding` within the system was something that had to be done directly with the soul, luckily my run in with Vaxstrom back when this all started had taught me how to use my soul in some rough ways. I wasn’t as good as I wanted to be, but I was good enough. Besides, doing soul stuff is really dangerous since the system can’t protect me from the consequences of it as well as it can against other things.

The contribution feature was rather simple all things considered. It used a similar tracking method to figuring out how much experience someone got, this made it easy to integrate the first part. Once the tracking was done all I needed was a display and a usable score that I could both add and subtract from. The most difficult part was making sure that the contribution only turned on when a full raid team entered the fourth floor and would only gain contribution for doing things on that floor. Once everything was in place I moved on to setting up a shop to actually spend the contribution points.

I made the entrance tunnel of the fourth floor larger and added a large plateau at its exit point that looks out over the whole floor. I started carving out interior spaces within the mountain and into the sides of the entrance tunnel. Once the area was expanded I started creating buildings both within the mountain and on the plateau I just built. I used brick, wood, and glass to create a town in the entrance mountain that stood out from the rest of the floor's scenery.

With the area built I made some of the spaces able to be bought by adventurers the same way I did with the town. Other places I made sure to request Spiritkin for in order to fulfill the roles I would need on this floor. I planned on allowing adventurers to complete quests that would make sieging one of the fortresses easier and I needed Spiritkin to act as guides and facilitators on this floor.

I designated a large central building as the contribution shop and started setting it up. The main thing that would be sold would be random racial and class items. The highest rank you could buy at was superior, but the superior rank items would be much more expensive than the previous tier. I decided against selling premade gear with class enchantments since I wanted the guaranteed gear to be a special reward for beating bosses. However this would mean that someone could use the raid floor to randomly get most of a class set and then use a boss reward to purchase the last pieces they needed.

With the floor now mostly ready I decide to allow things to settle in. Once the Spiritkin arrive I give them the requisite memories they need to fulfill their roles before turning up the time acceleration and moving my attention away from the floor. I make sure the cost of the time accelerated floor isn’t taking up more than half of my mana generation so that I can still get other work done.

The mana cost stabilizes rather quickly thanks to the lack of upkeep on the floor. I decided to try not putting in respawns or even standard spawns for any of the monsters as I want to see what the result will be without my intervention. The Spiritkin can still respawn of course as they are special to me, but the normal monsters of the floor cannot. The only exception being that if any creature reaches Legendary rank on its own it’ll have its respawn saved as I don’t want to lose any truly powerful creatures.

The fact that I only think of something as truly powerful if it's at least Legendary rank really shows how skewed my perception is. I’ve yet to even see a Legendary rank adventurer, I‘m pretty sure that all of them are in the higher levels. It’s fine, I am a true core after all. I turn my attention to observing some of the adventurers while letting the fourth floor run in the background. Hopefully it will be ready after a day or two.