As the adventurer reached down to pick up her core, Crucible enacted her impromptu plan.

‘Mr Buggy, now!’ at his mistress’s command Mr Buggy dropped from the ceiling of the cavernous room. He fell in such a way that his momentum spun him just enough that he was going to land feet first on the adventurers head.

Crucible knew from the moment she saw this human enter her domain, that there was no way she could have Mr Buggy beat the man like he had killed the spider. So instead she had decided to rely upon a new element of combat that she had not practiced with before.

The element of surprise.

She knew that most creatures (herself not included) relied upon their eyes to gain information on the world around them. So once the adventurer had his eye-things pointed at nothing but her core, she gave the order for Mr Buggy to drop.

If Crucible had been attacking an untrained combatant that day, Mr Buggy would have most likely killed them with its impromptu body slam attack. Their brain would have been impaled by their skull being cracked and that would be the end of that.

This however was no ordinary human, this was an adventurer, someone who had spent most of their lives training to fight monsters. Training that certainly covered the importance of having great situational awareness.

The man might not have seen Mr Buggy, but one of his other senses must have told him something was wrong, as before Mr Buggy could crush him he dived off to the side in an a very well timed roll.

Fortunately when Mr Buggy hit the ground he had braced himself for the impact and was not too injured, though the ground did crack slightly as the thin stone heated by the lava below struggled to take the blow. But that moment of much needed recovery was all the opening the adventurer needed.

With skill that spoke of months if not years of practice, the man pulled himself out of his roll and both turned and swung his sword at the direction of his attacker in a skilled slashing strike.

The steel sword sung through the air in a deadly arc that was clearly more than powerful enough to tear through both flesh and bone with brutal effectiveness. With Mr Buggy still recovering, there was no way he could dodge in time.

The man however had clearly not realised that he was fighting an opponent less than half his size, an understandable mistake since he had only heard his foe and not seen it. This meant however that instead of striking downwards, the man had swiped his sword at torso height. It would have been devastating against a larger monster, but it sailed right over Mr Buggy’s head.

The adventurer quickly realised his mistake and swung again, the blow angled to strike at the monster he now realised was much shorter than himself. Mr Buggy though had recovered enough to firmly object to being eviscerated, an objection that he showed by scuttling backwards just fast enough to dodge the deadly sword.

This continued on for a few seconds, as the man would sweep his sword and Mr Buggy would retreat out of its way. Whilst this certainly allowed Mr Buggy to survive, the man left no openings that Crucible could see for Mr Buggy to take advantage of.

The adventurer was playing it safe, giving Mr Buggy no window of opportunity to strike at, whilst slowly backing the bug into a corner that would soon leave Crucible’s favourite beetle with no room left to dodge the deadly blade.

All too quickly the man’s strategy came to fruition. With no space left to evade in the corner of the cave, Mr Buggy valiantly raised his pincers in an attempt to block the blow.

Unfortunately the finely forged steel of the man’s blade proved itself to be far too strong and sharp for a single monster beetle to handle. The sword cut through the pincers and deftly severed them from Mr Buggy’s head.

Heavily wounded and maimed Mr Buggy had no chance to block or evade the sword thrust into his thorax. A simple blow, yet one that promised a fatal injury to the dying monster.

Convinced that his opponent was handled, the adventurer turned his back on the beast and made to grab the dungeon core.

‘Help! Someone, anyone HELP!’ Crucible cried in desperation as she could only watch as the man that would soon take her got closer and closer to her body.

Though her mental scream was loud, no one would hear it.

…No one except a young fatally wounded monster that would do anything to save its creator.

In his death throes, Mr Buggy pushed the last of his strength into one final leap.

The adventurer turned just in time to see Mr Buggy’s battered and bleeding form collide with him.

Since the man had not been prepared for multiple pounds of beetle to strike him in the chest, his balance was lost. The weight of his sword combined with the surprise desperation attack forced him violently to the floor.

The floor that was still cracked by Mr Buggy’s earlier landing.

With all that extra weight on top of it, the thin stone floor could not hold.

With a mighty cracking sound that echoed through the dungeon, the floor gave way, throwing the adventurer head first into the magma that lay below.

He did not even get a chance to scream, as his life was snuffed out.

That was the day Miller Brooke, ex-guild member, wanted man and budding kleptomaniac met his end at the hands of a lethal mix of misfortune and his own stupidity.

Despite Miller Brookes numerus crimes, most people would still have found his death, as someone from one of the civilised races, to be far more tragic than the death of monster.

But Crucible was not most people. As she watched Mr Buggy’s lifeless corpse burn into nothingness, she didn’t spare a single thought for the adventurer that had perished in her dungeon.

‘Mr Buggy’s is dead.’ The thought sunk into her mind as she struggled to comprehend what had just occurred. ‘Mr Buggy is dead, he’s gone and he’s not coming back because he’s dead and he died saving me…’

The mantra continued to violate her thoughts as Crucible could do nothing but weep without a single tear she could shed. There was nothing but her and a single undeniable fact.

‘He’s dead and he’s gone, he’s not coming back…’

Time seemed to lose meaning as Crucible lost herself to her own grief. A moment of existence seemed to stretch on for an eternity as she spiralled down and down…

‘He died saving me, died for me-‘

He gave himself up to the dark abyss to keep you alive.

Crucible was snapped from her descending mantra of madness as the message manifested itself directly into her mind. Before she could recover from the shock, the system continued.

You are the heart of this dungeon, every monster under your aegis is an extension of yourself and your power, most of them will never gain enough independence to develop a sense of self. Mr Buggy did though, to some extent at least and with that small amount of agency he chose to save you.

Most of your monsters will never gain a sense of self. Even that however will not stop the sadness or the anger that will come when you lose those you want to protect. But that is the price you pay as a sentient dungeon core, you are cursed to know that you cannot save them all and to feel yourself doubt in your abilities as your mindless minions are cut down by the hundreds.

There is no way to avoid this, it is simply how this world works. You can choose to stop here and let the next threat that comes strike you down. Or you can take the willing sacrifice of your people and in their name, accomplish your goal.

You must choose. - Vesstiage, manager of the [DUNCORE NETWORK].

Crucible simply stared as the message the system had projected into her mind. Again and again she read it, until finally she felt that most of it had sunk in.

Then she dismissed the message, her thoughts finally starting to pull themselves back together as she asked herself a question.

‘What do I do?’ Crucible found herself faced with only two options. Whilst her depressed state tried to whisper to her how much easier it would be to simply wallow for as long as she wanted, Crucible knew that if she chose to live that would not be an option.

The dungeon was open now, it would only be a matter of time until the next threat reared its head. If she chose to live she would need to build room, defences, minions…

With those she would be a better dungeon, she would be a better self, she would be a better Crucible.

‘And maybe some of them would be like Mr Buggy?’ Crucible thought, as she channelled her goal that she had first pledged upon gaining an understanding of ‘self’ into filling the bug shaped hole in her heart.

It did not work perfectly, she knew deep down that for as long as she remembered him nothing could replace Mr Buggy.

For a moment however, she let herself believe.

Would you like to view the rewards you received from this encounter?

‘Yes’ Crucible acquiesced, her cohesive thoughts held together by hopes and dreams alone.

But perhaps, for now, that was enough.

For surviving your first encounter with an adventurer, you have gone up in rank!

New status: Rank 1, your maximum capacity for health and mana have been doubled and your current health and mana are refiled.

Through observation of an adventurer in your dungeon you have learned to understand the following language [Common].

Through defeating a skilled adventurer in your dungeon you have gained an understanding of the following skill [Swordsmanship: Novice].

As a reward for achieving Rank 1 status, you have been gifted with a new ability [Bestow name].

‘That’s a lot of new things.’ Hope burned brighter in Crucibles soul as she absorbed the new knowledge presented before her. The grief and sorrow she had felt near moments before was forced to the back of her mind as she pushed herself into planning out her defences.

‘I need to put some distance between myself and the entrance, that’ll give my minions more time and space to stop any more attackers’ . Crucible thought with an abnormally large seriousness as she went over her ideas. ‘With 1000 mana to work with I could make four or five more rooms, that should be enough right?’

Once again Crucible imposed her will on the walls of the dungeon, shaping the stone into an opening that would lead to the new room she was constructing. That left her core room with two entrances, one leading to the room that led outside and the other going to the room she was building. She didn’t worry about that though, she could fix it once her room building was done.

After a few minutes work the dungeons third room was done. Crucible quietly noted that the excavation had gone much faster than either of her last two room creations, perhaps she was getting better at using [Modify terrain]?

Crucible didn’t let that idea distract her for long, an hour of work later and she had finished the third of the four rooms she had planned to build. Now that her dungeon had five rooms in it Crucible’s mana regeneration rate had increased to 25 points per hour, a definite improvement for sure.

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Just as Crucible started pushing to create another room however she hit a strong feeling of…. resistance.

ERROR: Maximum limit on room capacity reached for this floor (capacity: 5). Please add a second floor to the dungeon to continue expansion.

‘Wait, room limit? Why’s there a room limit?’ Crucible questioned as she continued trying to carve out her new room, but the stone refused to bend.

The room limit was set by the gods over 1000 years ago. Your room limit for each floor can be calculated using the following sum: 4 + [Floor number].

‘Hmmm’. Crucible pondered as she finally stopped trying to build another room, recognising that it wasn’t getting her anywhere. Instead she focused on what the system was telling her. ‘How do I get a new floor?’

While planning out her expansion, Crucible had considered digging downwards, unfortunately that plan had been scrapped when she realised that her [Dungeon influence] had stopped expanding beneath her at some point. There simply wasn’t enough area covered by her [Dungeon influence] for her to dig her own second floor, fortunately the system had more to say.

To gain access to a new floor the dungeon must spend mana equal to half their maximum mana capacity + (100 x [Number of previous new floors]. Once this is done the dungeons area of [Dungeon Influence] is expanded downwards to give it space to dig out new rooms and create their new floor however they wish to.

‘So to get a new floor… half my mana capacity alone is 500.’ Crucible winced at the price as she did the mental maths. ‘I haven’t made any new floors before, so 100 x 0 is 0 and 500 + 0 isn’t exactly an impossible price to pay.’

‘Still, that’s mana not going into my defences, defences that I need to be a better dungeon. I just can’t afford to pay that price right now.’ With a pulse of dismissal, Crucible decided it was time to tackle the next problem on her list.

Currently she was still in the second room of her dungeon, with her resting place clearly visible from the entrance to the outside world. This was dangerous, so Crucible needed to move herself from her current room all the way down to the fifth room, the one furthest from the entrance.

With this in mind, Crucible invoked her [Manifest monster] ability and channelled it into creating a new Giant fire mountain beetle.

Mana sang through the air as it spun and weaved itself into physical form. After only a few second of work a flash of light sprang forth, before dimming to reveal the new form of the coalesced mana.

To her shame, she could only look at the beetle for a few seconds before her grief forced her to turn away. The resemblance between her new monster and Mr Buggy simply too much to bear.

Averting her sense from observing the beetle, she gave it the command to pick her up and place her in the fifth room furthest from the dungeon’s entrance. The beetle responded with absolute obedience, as it picked her up in its six legs and took off towards its designated destination.

As they flew, Crucible took the opportunity to look at the walls of her dungeon. In spite of, or perhaps even because of the fact she had dug them out with her own power, all of the walls were slightly different. Different types of stone varied in both colour and texture, while little deviances and imperfections in the stone made what would otherwise be a rather plain surface rather interesting.

This analysis of her dungeon’s walls did its job in distracting her from thinking about Mr Buggy, while his lookalike carried her to the end of the dungeon.

Finally, when Crucible was once again on solid ground, she spent a small moment feeling satisfied about what she had just accomplished. Now, when they entered her dungeon they wouldn’t just see the core sitting…

Crucible let out a mental ground of frustration as she realised her mistake. In her haste to put as much distance between herself and the entrance as possible she had built her rooms in a straight line. This meant that while she was technically as far away from the entrance as she could get right now, it would still be a straight shot for adventurers!

‘I need something that will stop adventurers from seeing or attacking my core from the next room over. I wonder if I could…’ Her pondering was interrupted by the classic *ping* sound as the system once again intervened.

Due to conscious thought and consideration from the dungeon core, the following structure has been made available: Crude door.

In conjunction with the appearance of the message, Crucible could see a structure of some kind in her mind’s eye. It was made of twisted wood that gave it an almost dilapidated feeling, yet she knew instinctively that this door thing would work for the purpose she needed it for.

Summoning forth her mana, she focused on her [Modify terrain] ability. A few seconds later a small amount of her energy left her, before assuming a more tangible form and placing itself in the opening that led to her new core room.

Once Crucible was sure that the door had formed and stabilised she stopped channelling her power. The crooked and worn wood groaned in protest, as but her construction work stood firm and clung to the cavern wall with rigid certainty.

With her core no longer out in the open, Crucible felt confident in moving on to the next phase of her plan. She needed more minions to stop invaders as they trekked through her dungeon and whilst she could just make more giant fire mountain beetles, there was something else she could do.

Focusing on one of the schevsufler worms that had joined her dungeon only a few hours ago, Crucible quickly took advantage of the fact that the worm was classified as a non-monster to force an evolution on it, much like she had done when she had made Mr Buggy.

The worm wriggled and jiggled as it grew and grew in size until it was slightly longer and wider than a human’s arm. Its grey skin hardened until it was rock-like both in texture and hardness, at which point Crucible cut off the flow of mana and observed her creation.

Schevsufler worm has evolved into Ravenous schevsufler worm.

Creature identified: Ravenous schevsufler worm

Classification: monster worm

The monster variation of their much smaller counterpart. These creatures traded in their ability to hibernate in a stone form in exchange for making their skin as strong as stone permanently. These beasts thrive beneath the ground near thermal vents, living out their days eating the vents ambient mana. If the worm is disturbed by something entering its territory they attack by binding and crushing the intruder with their thick yet flexible body.

You can now create: Ravenous schevsufler worm

Crucible felt a spark of pride as she admired her own work. These minions in combination with her beetles would surely be enough to stop adventurers before they could get anywhere near her core.

Over the next few hours Crucible summoned monster after monster to fill her new rooms. Weaving all that mana was an exercise in both patience and concentration, but at least her [Manifest monster] ability got a workout.

However, Crucible was not so distracted that she would miss something strange going on in her dungeon. A fact that was proven when she noticed the ground which had cracked open in the lava pit room had seemingly repaired itself whilst she was not looking.

As Crucible pondered this development, her unspoken question was quickly answered.

Due to the amount of time that has passed since [Crude lava pitfall trap] was triggered, the trap has been reset.

Crucible filed that information for later as she considered what do with her accidental trap. It had helped save her life… but it had also killed Mr Buggy. She didn’t want to risk any more of her minions falling in accidentally.

Eventually Crucible decided she would fill in the trap and get rid of the lava, once she had more mana to spare. She simply couldn’t afford to put aside the mana necessary to get rid of it, when even the smallest amount of that mana could instead be used to get more minions.

With that decision finalised, she continued to produce monsters until her numbers had reached a total of 23. That was a combination of 15 giant fire mountain beetles and 8 ravenous schevsufler worms. Now with her monsters in place, Crucible moved on to the final phase of her plan, making use of the new ability she had gained called [Bestow name].

Having read the powers description earlier, Crucible knew exactly how she wanted to use it.

[Bestow name]: The power to give that which is unnamed a name that gains magical significance. When used on a monster it is granted [Unique monster] status, making it much stronger, giving it access to more abilities and allowing it to respawn in the dungeon if slain.

WARNING: The amount of times that [Bestow name] can be used successfully is equal to the amount of floors the dungeon has. Current number of uses left, 1.

With a simple mental command Crucible ordered one of the giant beetles to appear before her. Loyally the beetle obeyed and soon it was in her core chamber, waiting for what she was going to do next.

Silently, she invoked [Bestow name].

ERROR: Not enough mana, please wait a few hours for it to regenerate.

‘I… don’t have enough mana.’ Crucible fretted as she viewed the error message. She had spent too much of her precious power on building up her number of minions and now her plan would be ruined!

‘No, stay calm.’ She told herself. ‘I just need to wait an hour or so, then I’ll have super powerful awesome minion to guard my core. It’s not like another adventurer will come along so soon… right?’

While Crucible had tried to inject some levity into her own thoughts, the optimism it would have once brought forth just didn’t hold under the tension and strain.

The next hour was an absolutely brutal trial of sanity and paranoia, as Crucible could do nothing but watch and wait. She knew the enemy was out there somewhere, planning, scheming, ready to enter her dungeon, strike down her minions and destroy her core at a moment’s notice.

But she also knew they weren’t in her dungeon doing that right now, she could only hope that they didn’t appear anytime soon. It was the fact that she could do nothing but wait that was slowly driving her mad.

Crucibles emotional turmoil and stress trickled down into her minions and while none of them were intelligent enough to figure out what was wrong, the poisonous concoction of paranoia and fear put all of them on edge. For the first time both the monstrous and non-monstrous inhabitants of the dungeon were completely silent, as if just like their mistress they were waiting with baited breath, knowing that they teetered on the edge of catastrophe.

The second she had enough mana, the tension and stress finally began to bleed out of Crucible as she once again invoked [Bestow name], targeting the giant beetle in front of her.

With a tremendous pulling sensation Crucible could feel the mana being leached from her core, all of it flowing towards the beetle until there was barely a single speck left in her core. All of it was used to fuel the amazing metamorphosis her minion was about to undergo.

As the power soaked into the beetle it was shrouded by a ruby red glow that matched the colour of its shell. Before the transformation could progress any further however, the system interrupted.

For this creature to become a [Unique monster] you must first choose one of the following skills/abilities for it to learn.

[Fire resistance]: Reduces damage from fire based attacks and environmental effects. Available due to creature possessing the [Heat resistance] ability.

[Swordsmanship: Novice]: Gives creature the ability to wield swords with decent skill. Available due to dungeon possessing an understanding of the [Swordsmanship: Novice] skill.

Looking over her two choices Crucible found herself torn. She wanted to dismiss fire resistance immediately, since it would be useless if the opponent never used fire attacks and the last one certainly hadn’t. Doing that however would mean choosing the sword skill, whilst swords were certainly dangerous she’d learned that from watching Mr Buggy fight and die…

Pragmatism wared with fear of being constantly reminded of Mr Buggy’s death. Crucible eventually managed to settle the internal debate without tearing herself apart. She just rationalised it as a way to honour Mr Buggy’s sacrifice, by turning the weapons that had slayed him against her enemies. At least that’s what she told herself.

Forcing herself to make a choice, she picked [Swordsmanship: Novice].

Mana converged into the beetles form, as the red light that shrouded it grew to a blinding intensity that completely enveloped the evolving minion. As the light grew and grew so too did the creature’s body, larger and larger until…

The glow stopped.

Giant fire mountain beetle has evolved into burning blade titan beetle

Creature identified: Burning blade titan beetle

Classification: monster unique

A Giant fire mountain beetle pushed to become a unique monster by its creator. This beast of a fighter is not only massive in size but also stands on it back legs, allowing its front and middle limbs to be used as arms to wield large blades. This is a unique monster so it is not found in the wild.

WARNING: due to this minions status as a [Unique monster], you have not gained the ability to create more of this species.

Crucible could only look upon her most powerful minion in awe, the titan stood taller than four of its predecessor stacked on top of each other. That fact combined with its bipedal nature allowed it to tower over any of the dungeons inhabitancies with ease, even the human would have been about half its height!

In the great beetle’s middle limbs that looked somewhat like human hands it held two large blades that seemed to be made out of metal. Whilst they were covered in cracks and other signs of crude craftsmanship, their size alone made up for the weapons poor quality.

WARNING: In order to stabilise the evolution of this monster into a [Unique monster], a name must be selected NOW. If a name is not selected with the next few minutes the creature’s physical form will rupture due to the powers of the world not recognizing it as being worthy of its strength.

Now to stop this from occurring, please select a name! You can either think of your own, or choose one of the following.

[Infernus][Count B][Atlas][Mammoth][Champion]

‘I choose Atlas!’ Crucible declared, picking one of the names presented to her at random.

Atlas seemed to ripple with magical energy for a second, as his body solidified. It passed after a moment and the process was done, Atlas was now a [Unique monster].

Proud of her work, Crucible commanded her new guardian to take his place alone in the fourth room, the room just before the core room. He would be the last one standing between her and her mortal enemies.

The rest of her monsters were scattered throughout the other three non-core rooms. The giant beetles milled about, casually absorbing the mana released from the magma, whilst the ravenous worms rested just beneath the floor, waiting for the first threat that would dare stir them from their slumber.

Her mana was spent and her minions were in place, all she had to do was wait for the enemy to show up.

Any moment now…

Any second now…

Any minute now…

Any hour now…

‘I’m bored’ Crucible admitted to herself as she watched her minions mill about in their current defensive positions. Now that all of her defences were in place the feeling of danger and paranoia that had once griped Crucible had slowly ebbed away, until it was replaced completely with a profound sense of boredom.

She had made herself as safe as she could, expecting another dangerous foe to rear their ugly head at the worst possible time. Now that she was prepared however, she needed that danger to show up so she could defeat it and know that her defences worked.

No enemies had shown up in over a day however so now she was… bored.

It was a rather novel experience she felt. In her short life so far Crucible had not felt bored until now. How had she stopped it from happening before she’d first faced true danger?

With a tinge of apprehension Crucible cast her mind back to… was it really only a day or two ago? She felt like it had been so much longer. She remembered having her little bugs flying around in nice orderly rows, doing tricks and stunts for her amusement.

She remembered Mr Buggy…

She remembered how he made her feel so happy, flying around covered in so many of his much smaller kin, she’d even made a game out of it.

17 bugs on Mr Buggy, 17 had been her record.

Looking at Atlas, Crucible felt a sense of amusement building up within her as she began to wonder.

‘How many beetles can I fit on you, Atlas?’

Atlas responded with a pleased rumble.