There was a flash of light, one so bright that I had to squint my metaphysical eyes. The God disappeared in a flash of blue glitched-out light, and suddenly-

.........

The human adventures had arrived at the crack of dawn. I expected them to come when the sun had gone up a little more before I guess they were just that eager to test out my dungeon.

They were your typical fantasy party. A swordsman, a mage in green robes, likely a healer of some sort, and a dwarf that wore heavy armor, his shield and axe were inscribed with intricate runes that glittered with arcane light.

This will be interesting to watch, I'll finally get a chance to see my first dungeon dive. Hopefully, they don't slaughter my mobs and breeze through everything. I also don't want my monsters to be too powerful either, balancing is important with these things.

I want my dungeon to be fun and engaging, not just for me but for those delving into it as well. Of course, it isn't going to be for those with malicious intentions but you get the idea.

They advanced, moving slowly and cautiously. It took a painstaking long while for them to reach my entrance, but it was amusing to watch.

They eyed the intricate carvings on my stone pillars and paled even further.

"Halls..do you think it's an elder dungeon?"

The swordsman nodded grimly.

"I don't think we're going to make it, Pal, but if you do, by some miracle, tell my ma I love her."

The mage muttered a silent prayer to the God of magic and everyone got ready and moved closer to my door. Stone twisted inward and scraped on the floor as it opened, slowly and loudly. They advanced slowly, and when they were fully inside I closed the door behind them.

The mage held out his hand and white light bloomed from his palm and stretched into a sphere of light that covered them and lit up the surrounding area a little bit. Interesting, they’ve done this before, I expected them to freak out at the seemingly impenetrable darkness but they remained calm.

I ordered my ratlings to attack and chaos unfolded, the mage’s eyes flashed white and he quickly warned the others.

“Incoming!”

The dwarf rushed forward and planted his glimmering shield on the floor, sending a wave of invisible force rippling outward. Some of my ratlings were unlucky enough to be caught in the explosion of force and were thrown back violently, other than some bruises and scrapes they were fine though, and got up a few seconds later.

With a grunt, the dwarf hefted up his shield just in time to block the claw of an incoming ratling, he pushed it to the side and swung his axe in a wide arc, cleanly cutting it in two. The ratling’s soul detached, split in two halves, one flowing into the dwarf, and the other returning to me.

Interestingly, I watched as the soul traveled into the dwarf’s soul and fused with it, emitting a pulse of light that washed over his body as it did. He moved with a bit more grace and strength after that, and his soul burned a bit brighter.

My mind sped up as I pondered the phenomenon I just witnessed. Was this how humans got stronger? It almost seemed game-like in its design, which was interesting. I didn’t want to miss out on the ongoing fight though, so I made a mental note to look into this later and returned my attention to the present.

After the dwarf killed the first Ratling the rest of them went into a frenzy, exploding in sudden bursts of strength in hopes of overcoming the seemingly impenetrable defense of the dwarf. The swordsman wasn’t faring any better, though he was killing more than the dwarf. His sword shimmered with blue light as he moved, leaving trails of blue light in the air as he chopped up Ratling after Ratling.

The mage supported from the back, dashing out healing spells and burning anything that managed to get past the swordsman and dwarf. He was the one I was most interested in, the way his soul behaved fascinated me, his soul essence would shift to a rich green when he cast a healing spell and a hot red when he cast a fireball spell.

His soul spun and churned out soul essence at a rapid pace as the fight continued and they advanced. The same thing happened to the dwarf and swordsman when they called upon their abilities, though their souls responded much slower and their soul essence moved sluggishly through their bodies.

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The fight continued similarly until all my thirty ratlings were dead, the party rested for an hour and the mage healed up any accumulated wounds before finding a spot to sit down and began meditating. His soul spiked and began sifting through a myriad of colors as time went on.

At the 30-minute mark, his soul was once again filled with pure soul essence. When I saw that they were ready I triggered the enchantment on the boss room door and watched in amusement as they scrambled together and got ready.

The large stone door slid upward into the wall and they moved in, each step slow and deliberate. Eventually, they reached inside the room, and kölgə’s sleeping form greeted them.

His silver eyes cracked open and the room went dark, the sphere of light conjured by the mage dimmed, and it was barely able to illuminate further than their hands could reach.

A deep guttural laugh echoed throughout the room, causing the party to tense and move closer to each other.

“Oh, silly humans, you DARE come into this holy place? HAVE YOU NO SHAME!? TODAY, IS THE DAY YOU ALL DIE!”

Faster than the swordsman could react, a tail shot out from the darkness and wrapped around his neck before yanking him into the darkness. His screams of terror were silenced by kölgə as he decapitated him in one clean swipe.

Time slowed as my mind sped up and I absorbed his body, a rush of soul essence so large my dungeon shook flowed into me, and a pristine white soul floated up and tried rushing out of my dungeon. I lashed out with large and thick ropes of soul essence, it struggled and resisted but eventually, its resistance broke and I pulled it into my walls where it joined my collection of smaller souls.

Information on the patterns I unlocked flowed into me like a roaring tide, I savored the feeling of intricate knowledge flowing into me and filling my dungeon. I broke myself out of the feeling once they settled, I would review what I got later after this fight was done.

The dwarf stood rooted in place, fear and terror bleeding off him as he processed what just happened. The mage fared no better, his spells blinked out of existence as fear gripped him, plunging the room into absolute darkness.

“KAKAKA! NOW YOU SEE! ONLY DEATH AWAITS!”

Kölgə effortlessly flung himself over the fear-stricken duo, landing behind the mage, and moved in for a strike, plunging his outstretched claw through the chest of the mage before severing his head a second later.

A multicolored soul detached from his body and I latched on to it, hammering into its defenses until it broke before pulling it into my walls. Finally! An elemental soul, I would have so much fun experimenting with this later, next, I absorbed his body and pushed away the stream of patterns that flew into me and sent a command to kölgə.

Let the dwarf go.

“Yes, creator.”

With a powerful kick, the dwarf was sent flying out of the boss room. He crashed and slammed into the dead body of a Ratling, black sticky blood coating his head side in the process. With a thought my door began to creak open and the dwarf made a mad dash for it, leaving his axe and shield in the process.

He slipped through and sped up even more, moving at a speed I didn’t think was possible for someone his size, with just two minutes he ran through the clearing and came to a halt at the city gate.

I stopped paying attention after that, too happy to check out my gains. I had unlocked a slew of patterns. With a thought, I brought them up.

NEW:

Leather(Cow)

Iron (Bar)

Iron

Steel (Bar)

Steel

Cotton

Cow

Gold (Bar)

Gold

silk(Green)

Diamond (Blue)

Oaktree

Oak

Sword

Mage robe(Green)

Two-headed battleaxe(Enchanted)

Oakwood Staff(Enchanted)

Silkworm

Paper

Tome

Ink

Leather(Horse)

Horse

Grass

Steel sword

Steel shield (Enchanted)

Strangely, I didn’t get the human pattern itself which was strange. Were they specially protected from my powers somehow? Still, that hardly mattered compared to what I gained. The mage was a walking goldmine of patterns, I didn’t expect to get so much from him. His leather-bound tome and staff were very interesting, along with the axe and shield. I was glad I finally got some more animal patterns, I could finally have some more variety in my dungeon and upcoming floors.

The souls were the two of my most valuable possessions, they shone like beacons in the dark in the small river of souls I had, especially the elemental one. It constantly shifted between red and bright green, were these his affinities? It made sense since I only saw him use those.

The amount of soul essence I got from the two kills alone was so much that the soul essence that suffused my dungeon underwent a qualitative change, moving from a gaseous to a thick viscous liquid form. It thrummed with power, and I felt my powers as a dungeon experienced a massive leap.

I could now instinctively tell that my link with my creatures wouldn’t snap if they left my dungeon. I could send them exploring! I could get so many patterns now, happiness flowed through me and I sent a thank you to kölgə before moving to my empty third floor.

With a thought, it was filled with soil, and with another an enrichment enchantment was weaved into it, turning its color from brown to rich black. Man, this new soul essence is no joke! I just filled an entire room the size of a football stadium with dirt with but a mere thought!

I barely depleted any of it too, which made it even more awesome. I wanted to employ everything I had on this floor, and I wasn’t going to hold back, I might even try my hand at a weather system.

I had big plans for this floor, plans so big that I extended it some more, making it the size of two football stadiums. I quickly filled it with dirt and wove the same enchantment in it. Next, I spawned a blade of grass and elongated it then made the tall grass pattern before filling the floor with it.

Next, I carved a large hole in the center of the floor's ceiling and spawned a massive soul lantern in it, I then carved out a trench that went north to east that went all the way under the floor and back to the soul lantern in a perfect cycle. I layered a movement enchantment on the soul lantern and then an on-and-off enchantment.

The movement enchantment would make it move in the direction of the trench and would sink up with the on-and-off enchantment when it dipped under the floor. With a thought the large soul lantern began to move, very slowly, I sped it up and watched as it zipped forward and sank under the floor foundation, and popped up on the other side after about a minute.

Okay, that worked! Now for a light change enchantment, I quickly wove a color change enchantment into the soul lantern and sent it around again, watching as it emerged from the other side with a white color reminiscent of the moon instead of its usual golden color.

Success!