Within an hour my second floor had around thirty ember lizards. Each one was fitted with a soul. My soul essence pool had now doubled, along with the rate of regeneration. Which was good, I was getting tired of running out of soul essence mid-project.

This allowed me to jump into phase two of my plan. The ember lizards would be the apex predator of this floor, but it was also the only creature on this floor. I wanted to change that; it wouldn’t be a proper forest floor.

I wanted to create a proper ecosystem, and this was merely the beginning. First, I took the moon fruit pattern and modified it to grow like vines with a lot of leaves, I also changed the shape of their fruits to that of a ball that is brightly colored red.

I modified them to grow like grapes but in massive quantities, the ember lizards instantly fell in love with them and started making their homes near spots where they grew.

They ran along the floor and climbed up trees, and soon they covered the entire floor. After that was done, I changed their growth rate back to normal and saved their template as sun fruits. I made sure to stir their rampant growth around the walkable path of this floor.

I didn’t want the floor to be dominated by these things, only partly. And they wouldn’t even stay on top for long as the ember lizards were devouring them. In time it would balance out by itself and become a perpetual cycle, which was what I wanted.

Now my second floor had two types of flora! I mentally patted myself on my shoulder, and that definitely existed. I wanted to add another apex creature along with the ember lizard, one that lived in the trees, preferably.

I spawned another anole lizard and removed its reptilian skin, replacing it with the skin of a mammal, specifically the rat. I made the color the same as the ember trees and wove an enchantment into them that granted the ability to shift between the colors of the ember trees.

I named the pattern raptillion after some thought and grew it to the same size as the ember lizard, next I gave them extremely sharp claws with another enchantment along with slim legs and arms that sported lean but powerful muscles that allowed them to leap from tree to tree rapidly.

I now had two predators! Sweet progress! I had predators, and producers, and now all I needed was suitable prey.

I quickly populated the floor with raptillions and the war began almost instantly, it was fascinating to watch. Groups of two or more raptillions would follow an ember lizard to their den, wait until they were inside, and steal all of the sun fruits nearby.

This was how the first war started and it only got worse, the raptillions quickly became masters at hiding themselves in plain sight, rarely touching the ground unless it was for a killing blow.

The ember lizards adapted accordingly and moved their dens to sparsely populated spots filled with sun fruits, they also learned to fire their spikes with uncanny accuracy. If a raptillion was unlucky enough to be caught by one the results always ended messily.

This all happened throughout what I assumed to be weeks; it could be longer. Time was wonky as a coreless dungeon. During this time, I hadn’t managed to make or claim any new patterns, the animals avoided my dungeon like a plague.

Not a single living thing wanted to step close. I wondered why that was, was I cursed or something? I mean, a dungeon without a dungeon core sounded pretty cursed to me. Maybe the Gods of this world thought so too, if there were any.

I’m leaning on the side that says they do, in fact, exist though. There were a lot of reasons why I believed this, mostly my fragmented memories but the fact still remained; that I was a reincarnated human.

I often wondered who I was before this, but a void was all that answered my thoughts, and when I pushed any further it felt like I got kicked in the crotch by a cow on steroids. Something was blocking my memories, and from the looks of it that force was artificial, I just knew this, somehow.

I was not one to be gloomy about stuff I couldn’t control though, I had plenty of things I could control, my dungeon, for example. Back on the second floor I spawned a rat and made it fat then gave them the ability to release an extremely foul scent if they spotted or sensed danger.

They weren’t born fat though, and actually served a role within the ecosystem. With the recent war, I needed a way to organically clean up the battlefield without my direct intervention. I also needed a ventilation system; the place was beginning to stink with all the decomposing corpses.

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I began weaving the most complex enchantment ever over my entire second floor, I pushed soul essence into the air and continued until it filled the floor, and then I connected to the massive ethereal cloud of soul essence and pushed thoughts of clean, fresh air into it, I also pushed thoughts of wind and air into the cloud, and I felt it snap into place and vanish.

A second later fresh air washed over my second floor, rustling the leaves and stirring up the ones that had gathered on the floor, it swished around and gathered all the stale and stink air before purifying it and dissipating.

Wonderful! Now I had functional winds and a proper ventilation system. Turning my attention back to the rat I removed its fur and gave it tiny orange and white scales. I also shortened its tail and made them like living in trees, once that was done I seeded them across the entire floor and watched what would happen.

A day in the raptillions and ember lizards both began hunting them whenever they saw the…the Decollions! Yes Decollions, I’m just going to call them that from now on. So anyway, they started hunting the Decollions whenever they saw them eating their dead comrades, the Decollions were usually pretty fast though, and when they did get cornered if it wasn't by an ember lizard they’d survive because of their ability.

By the time their numbers stabilized both the souls of the Ember lizards and Raptillions had grown very large because of all the things they experienced. My soul essence pool was rapidly filling up and continued to climb because of that. My walls were now stuffed full of soul essence, my entire dungeon was.

In a few days, the ecosystem within the second floor stabilized and I finally felt done, the only thing left was to add a day and night cycle, which would net me a lot more soul essence as my creatures adjusted to that.

I turned my attention to the large soul lantern atop the massive ember tree and pushed my thoughts and soul essence into it, with a metaphysical snap, the enchantment settled in.

A day later the amount of soul essence I had begun to rise again, my entire dungeon glowed with the stuff. I was quite happy with the floor I made, it was small and cramped but it was beautiful.

I wanted to make a boss for this floor but held off, and instead moved to the first floor where I layered an enchantment on it that would keep it perpetually dark. So even when the door burst open, and light flooded the room the darkness wouldn’t go away.

I added this after I realized that the ratlings would lose their cover when the door to the outside world opened. This would give them an advantage, potentially a balance-breaking one, so to counter this I tweaked the enchantment to allow sources of light like torches.

I also made it so that they’d leave any invader if they turned back and didn’t want to fight anymore. With that done I carved out a square tunnel at the back of the cave, right beside the tunnel leading to the second floor. I carved out the inside into a perfect square and spawned a normal rat inside.

I then made it the size of two humans stacked onto each other and as thick as a pine tree’s trunk. After that was done I grew out its fur and made it wavey and silk-like then layered an enchantment over it that made it sway and shift constantly.

Next, I wove an enchantment into the room that made it pitch black and any light that came inside it would be dimmed by at least half. Then I made the massive rat’s eyes a bright silver color and elongated his claws and layered an enchantment of sharpness on them.

This had drained my soul essence reserves significantly and I had to wait another hour before it was back to usable levels again. The hour passed in an instant when I slowed down up my perception of time, which was a neat thing I could do.

Next, I wove an enchantment of lightness into the body of the boss, it would make him extremely light and made moving around very easy.

When that was done hollowed out a section of the wall behind the massive rat and formed an ember wood chest and wove a durability enchantment into it. Inside I formed a raptillion claw and shaped it into a dagger with an ember wood handle and wove a durability and sharpness enchantment into it then duplicated it two times.

I then sealed the chest within the hollowed-out section and wove in an enchantment that would only push it out if the boss was defeated.

A wave of happiness flowed through me when I was done, I was making a proper dungeon, and I just made my first boss! He looked very cool too, now I just needed to name him, and it would be complete.

The daggers were awesome too, they were my first created item, and I was sure the humans would love them.

I thought long and hard about what I would name my first boss but ultimately decided on kölgə, it just came to me out of the blue and I quite liked it.

As soon as I finished the thought something clicked and soul essence poured into kölgə in a roaring tide, I intuitively tried to pull back due to surprise but nothing worked. A few seconds later I was nearly depleted when the rush of soul essence finally stopped, and a brilliant golden soul bloomed in the head of kölgə.

His body twitched and life flickered into his form, his silver eyes gained a gleam of intellect and his body moved, rushing over to a nearby wall and knelt, words flowed through our connection.

“I greet thy maker; your humble servant awaits his orders.”

Had..had it just talked? No way, there was no way, right?

You speak?

Kölgə’s body shook, and he replied with a voice filled with joy.

“Oh yes, dear creator. This is merely one of your divine gifts, for your power knows no limits!”

What? Had I just created a Zealot minion? Would this continue every time I made a boss? I hoped not, the idea of starting an entire religion around me didn’t sit right with me. I was no all-powerful being, and certainly not divine in nature either.

I wasn’t going to tell him that though, he’d just gloss over it anyway.

I see, very well. Guard this room with your life, see to it that nobody gets what is in the chest.

“Yes, mighty creator!”

Sigh, I could feel a headache coming if this was how each interaction would go. Still, this was an interesting development, I wondered what happened to his soul when he died. A part of me didn’t want to find out but another did, I suppose only time would tell.

I left him alone and made a stone door that would lead to his room, making sure to weave a durability enchantment into it along with an enchantment that would only open it if all the ratlings were dead.

Next, I moved to the doors leading to my second floor and updated the enchantments in them to only open them if the boss floor was cleared. Then, I wove an enchantment over the first door that made it invisible until the boss room was cleared.

I finished up by carving a large ouroboros symbol on kölgə’s door.