"The modifications are holding up well in Phase 2, signs of reverting to n̴͔̤̆ó̴̜̓ȓ̷͖̬̇m̴̰̩̏́a̷͘͜l̵͖̠̆ ̶̦̱̌̉c̴͖̄h̸̭̑a̶͉̙̓r̷͙̪̍̂a̸̱̲͝ç̵͂̍t̵̺̋̕ē̴̻̅r̵̼̭͑̈ ̷̙̄̈́s̴̨̟͌t̴͎̆̏ͅā̶͍́n̶̮͈̕d̵͔̼̀a̵̦̋̾r̵͈̈́ḋ̴̯̽ś̶̲̺ have been promptly been eliminated. In Phase 3, we will see if they continue to influence the Test Subject."

~Excerpt of Project Report 11 to [REDACTED]

I stared blankly at my creation.

A pit trap.

I really was not feeling creative.

I was ready to work on some traps and readily made the pit trap right on the side of the room where I planned the hallway I would dig would be. I covered the trap in a thin layer of stone and added iron spikes to the bottom. And, if you did not know yet, I reinforced my whole 1 room dungeon with Mana, which included the 2 metres wide and 5 metres deep pit trap in order to make it harder to escape from and easier to kill invaders.

Trespassers must be eliminated of course, and the best way to do it, is to remove them permanently.

And then, I just blanked out. I knew that there were boulder traps and wall traps, but I did not know the mechanisms behind them.

I am not very knowledgeable about the subject of mechanisms am I?

As to why I was even creating this dungeon, I needed to Live Lif- Grow Powerful.

So, with a sigh, I got back to tunneling.

~~(~2 1/2 days later)~~

Yes, I did in fact dig for two and a half days straight. I didn't think I would be able to, but I did. Mostly because half a day in, and I realised I was being stupid for not utilising Gary to dig as well. He wasn't a particularly good burrower, but at least he was faster than me.

How I came to the admittedly obvious idea? People. Specifically, humans.

They sailed in on a rowboat, holding some sort of magical device that looked like a compass that pointed in my direction.

The crew was made up of 3 men and 2 women, a man and a woman each rowing using the oars on the sides, a man holding the compass, and the other two sitting down, talking with the ones rowing.

I watched them, intrigued, excited, and a bit worried of why they were looking for me.

When they reached the small island I was on, they walked around, looking at the compass and looking at the ground. The man holding the device muttered and wrote notes with a pitch black feather that had a blob of ink attached to its side onto a page in a thick leather-bound book.

He yelled at the others in what was likely a command, and a woman wearing a cloak grumbled, but dug into her small pouch and pulled out a pure metal shovel. A whole shovel. From a tiny bag.

I wanted it. The bag that is. Not the shovel, but the shovel itself was interesting too. The woman dropped it on a certain spot of the ground at the direction of the apparent leader, and it started digging by itself. Just floated upright, and did it.

Much to the annoyance of the leader, as the dirt flew in the air and smacked him in the face.

The woman chuckled and talked to the others who were also laughing.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The compass-wielding man rapidly reddened in the face and shouted at them, but the woman just rolled her eyes as he ranted at them.

In that period of time, I unsuccessfully tried to steal the bag. I attempted to create a meerkat, but I was unable to as-----My territory isn't aboveground. I groaned as this hadn't been a problem before. I tried to make a small cave underneath their feet by removing some of the soil, but I was slowed down immensely by some outside force. I attempted to pinpoint it based on its strength, an idea that I came up with, and I found it was strongest near the man with anger issues.

So it's either him or something on him that is doing that. I said, worried.

If there was something that could limit my powers, and it was taken into my dungeon...

...I can't do anything but watch.

My mind in hyperactive mode, I recounted everything that I could do as backup measures.

Traps if I can figure them out, my creatures if I can get them strong enough...

Oh. I realised belatedly. I can literally create a protective shell around me.

So, I funneled some Mana around me to make some of that brown crystal coating.

I still focused on them a bit, and then I looked at the shovel, thinking that it would be nice if I had something like that to help with my digging. Realisation struck again.

I used Gary to dig. And while I used him, I created some actually good diggers that would speed up the process tremendously. Meerkats.

Now, I knew that the normal versions could only make tunnels in dirt quickly, so I pumped my meerkat team of diggers up to Tier 3.

Just like that. Only took me a couple of hours to power them up while I was funneling Mana to my shell, which was much less frustrating that digging by myself.

2 days of tunneling after that, and that brings us to the present.

What was dug out was an additional 3 rooms. Two rooms similar in size to the first one I created, all along the same approximate line to the entrance I made that would allow people to enter through. And the third room was my new core room, connected to the previous one with small holes in their roofs that were hopefully unnoticeable.

In addition to that, since I was unable to absorb the stone pieces in a timely manner, I ordered my minions to make a pile outside of the dungeon by any means necessary, even though they couldn't physically be outside of my territory. Luckily, the humans didn't notice. Mostly because they left after only a few hours, leaving only a thick but tall metal pole in the hole the shovel made.

As to the subject of traps... apart from one in the entrance of the third room(when going through the dungeon), there was also a pit trap in the exit of the second room, and a big pit trap in the center of the first room.

My mind still making no progress on what other traps I could make, I created some creatures other than Gary to protect me.

First of all, I made sure he would stay in my previous core room, and gave him an iron snack for his troubles even if I didn't need to. I saw him as... not a tool, but a pet. And pets get snacks for doing good things.

And secondly, I formed some buffaloes. Going up from 3 to 4 to 5 progressively through the rooms. I wanted to create more, but my ability to make rooms by myself was severely limited, and I needed to give the buffaloes enough space to work together. Even if that meant having fewer of them in total.

That wouldn't be a problem though, they would be Tier 3 to compensate.

So for the last step of creating additional protectors, I gave them enough Mana to get them to Tier 3. But no more than that though. It wouldn't be as effective as putting all of that Mana into a single creature.

I gave them the orders of defending me and killing invaders, to which they carried out, looking intently for trespassers. Once they decided it was clear enough, they stumbled around, getting used to their power, but they figured it out and they started to try and communicate with each other, but still keeping a lookout.

As to my crystal armor, it got slightly bigger, which might not seem like much, but it would hopefully protect me enough for me not to die instantly in case something or someone attacks me directly.

Interesting. I muttered. They seem to be able to interpret my intentions and are working to fulfill them as best they can.

I gave them all a quick, Good! Keep doing that. and while they mooed in happiness, I turned to Gary.

Alright. I pushed my Mana into him. He did not freeze or anything, probably since the Mana I had was less than his.

So weird. I remarked as I thought of the fact that one of my creations had more of the resource that I created them with, than me!

I kept on adding more and more Mana, until his total Mana doubled what it was before.

I really should have done this before I tried to escape. I thought, remembering my rush to get away from the snake. If that thing can even be called one with all those legs. I shivered just thinking of it.

My gaze turned to the mooing I heard from Gary and I saw he finished his snack.

I gave him half a dozen iron boulders and a quick mental pat before contemplating what I should do now.

I sighed and reluctantly, I thought:

Figuring out traps.