"The best thing to do when you are stuck is take on new approaches. For example, you are hunting a bird in a forest. You usually track animals by their footprints. So, you don't know what to do. First of all, why are you hunting a bird? They don't often have much meat on them. Secondly, you could fly above the trees to have a wider field of view, if you are Tier 2 and have sufficient Mana control of course. But if you are still unable to locate it, LISTEN. And SMELL. Those are senses available to everyone. Of course, having Mana Sight as..."

~A lecture at a small village

What is a trap? I mumbled, going back to the basics to see if that would work. A trap is something that kills or damages by being activated by something.

So what could the activator be? I looked at the pit traps I made, and noticed the activator was the weight upon the thin layer of stone.

Weight on something. That's one. I tried remembering traps that used weight or pressure to be activated.

Bear traps! I recalled those traps which looked similar to jaws of shark teeth.

How would they work...

I intensely tried to recall it, as I knew that if I didn't then it could take years or even longer to figure out the proper mechanisms that made it work. Without some extreme luck of course. I focused on the jaws, what caused them to snap closed? Some sort of pressure in the middle. A leg would have to step inside on some sort of pressure plate...

I think I g-! I started to exclaim before other memories came along with it.

~~( Flashback )~~

The world ended.

My parents were eaten.

A dragon stared down at me.

"Your mother and father were delicious." The dragon spoke in my mind in a deep hum. "You would be too."

My tear streaked face scrunched up in confusion and anger. With a big breath in and out, I questioned it. "Monsters can talk?!"

The red scaled beast rumbled deep in its throat, as if laughing.

"No."

My fear left me as anger fully took its place.

"____ YOU, YOU _______ ______ ______!"

The monster's rumbles became a fully formed laugh.

"I would be careful if I were you. If you met my many legged half-brother instead of me, he would have sliced you into little pieces on the spot, no matter the repercussions." He chuckled in amusement. "That's what got him imprisoned after all."

"WELL YOU ATE MY PARENTS YOU _______ ______!" I shouted, enraged, fully uncaring about the consequences of insulting a monster who destroyed my city.

"True true. I'll send you to my... 'friend'. Find a way to free my brother. No matter how impulsive he may or may not be after his time in jail."

The city-destroyer opened his mouth and a stream of flames shot out. All I could do was raise up on of my fingers before I quickly burned to death. Luckily, fast enough that I didn't feel too much pain.

~~( Back to the present )~~

It... the... no... NO... NO!!!! I screamed in despair as I got submerged in my past's emotions of grief and anger. Then I realised the truth. I didn't win the lottery. I was purposefully sent here by a dragon who ate my parents that wanted me to free his brother!

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

And I think I know who his brother is. I shuddered, remembering the awfully long serpent underneath my birthplace.

I felt rock touch my crystalline exterior and a soft moo come from it. I looked up, puzzled, and I saw Gary.

Oh. I said, surprised. Uhh, thank you I guess.

He mooed once more and I watched him leave, going back to his room. I shook a little bit and resolved myself. I would not going to sit around and cry, I would...

Wait. I had a thought. There wasn't a passageway leading to my room before, was there?

I checked the room and saw a Gary sized hole in the wall. Along with rock fragments everywhere, as if something a similar, or exact size of Gary burst through the wall into my room.

I sighed and shook my core.

I guess I should have layered the whole dungeon with Mana-infused iron.

And that is what I did.

But not before ordering the meerkats to dig out a room behind the boss room that would be the stairwell down to the next floor. And once they were done with that, they would dig out as wide an area as possible, but still be at least 10 metres tall at all times. This would be a basic second floor that I would fill up later.

Also, I made a quick model of what I thought a bear trap would look like so I wouldn't forget about making traps.

Wasting time was a bad idea with adventurers coming.

...If they did come. But if not, it would still be better to be prepared.

~~(~1 Day and 2 Hours later)~~

I sighed in relief. I seemed to be sighing a lot recently. I had finally covered the whole of my single floor dungeon with the strongest iron I could make. And with a quick test from Gary, I could tell that while it wouldn't hold up to Tier 3's at all, it could not be scratched by Tier 2's. Unless it was me. I could just absorb it and there wouldn't even be anything left as evidence it ever existed. But that's besides the point. It would protect the dungeon itself from low-powered harm so I did not have to rebuild the dungeon every time a Tier 2 stepped on the floor too hard.

Okay. I muttered, looking at the bear trap. Time to spread some of these traps around.

I recreated 3 bear traps in each room, making sure that the buffaloes in those rooms wouldn't accidentally trigger them. The bear traps were made of solid Mana-strengthened iron and fused to the floor. In case anyone got the idea they could steal from me.

I tested one of them by creating a rock over the pressure plate, and when it dropped, the jaws slammed shut and absolutely destroyed that rock.

Nice nice.

I ordered one of the buffaloes in that room to pull apart the trap again, and as an afterthought, commanded all buffaloes to do that once there was no-one on that floor.

I turned my gaze to the pit traps. They were unable to be reset without my intervention. That had to change.

So instead of a thin layer of rock, which actually stands out since the whole dungeon is covered in metal, maybe I could replace it with... Aha! I figured something out. I could add some flaps made out of iron, and to reset them as well as keep them hanging into the pit, I could add elastic or something stretchy.

My train of thought stopped. Where am I going to find something stretchy?

I think rubber would work, it comes from trees. But what trees does it come from, and how do I process it?

I pondered it for a bit, then dismissed the idea of making traps that require stretchy things and took another look at the pit traps.

A revelation struck.

Bins!

Specifically, those bins that have a sort of rotating lid where you can push down on one side to drop your rubbish in.

I quickly absorbed one of the pit trap's stone layering and created a couple of holes on each side of it. Into which, I placed an iron rod that had its ends fit into both. After that, I made a square of metal where the rod was, leaving a small hole running through it to fit the rod into. I infused all of that with Mana, made a few adjustments, and done! A revised spiked pit trap that is easily reusable.

I sighed in contentment, proud of what I did.

Now onto repeating this for the other pit traps... My mood soured a bit, but I perked up as I thought again about the fact that I invented this. Me!

I know I should have felt more proud about the other things I achieved, but for some reason, in this world my emotions were more a part of me.

~~([Redacted]/'The Administrator')~~

I pressed a button repeatedly in panic.

"No no no no no no no!"

It wasn't working! And in phase 2 nonetheless!

A screen above me dinged and I looked up.

!$#!$^&$: This is unacceptable.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"

~~(Dave)~~

I feel strange. I commented as a red-gold light flashed in my vision. Wait, what is-?

I blanked out.

When I came to, I immediately started updating the pit traps in a haze. After one pit trap, I began thinking more clearly. After I finished, I was back to almost normal.

Almost.