I was currently ecstatic, as I had expanded first floor of the dungeon during the last month. I created more caves, and filled whole dungeon with holes, burrows and pathways for my creatures, prohibiting them from fighting in there. I wouldn’t want the ecosystem between my killer squirrels, slasher rabbits, and vicious snakes to collapse due extermination. Besides, newly spawned creatures suck with combat with no experience. I’d rather keep a sizeable reserves, and they can duke it out as much as they want to within caves. I have even strengthened my dungeon against foreign intruders by creating as dense stone as I could, for a fifty meters in all directions.

Currently they have even chosen territories. Bunnies live under the floor, snakes in the walls, and squirrels within the ceiling. My bugs never stand a chance anymore, being there just to create atmosphere and such. I even toyed with temperature and moisture of the air, making the caves closer to a rainforest.

During the beginning, I got too excited with changing my furballs of death, and snakes were almost wiped out. Thus, I had to enhance the snakes to being more resistant to their claws and teeths, or boost their abilities. Now my vipers are more adept at concealment, and have somewhat harder scales. They tend to pick off stragglers.

Constrictors grew in size, being now five meters in length and 30 centimeter thick, with dense muscles, very hard scales, and a maw full of retractable, extremely sharp teeths. To kill them, bunnies need a large group, while squirrels go for the eyes. Recently I saw one burrowing through the eye, so it could reach the brains. It is always pleasant surprise when they learn new tricks. I only keep a pair of them in both of the caves before core room, as a floor bosses of sorts.

As for the pit snakes, they tend to live in communities still, yet were easily massacred early on. I decided to go with different approach for them, and shrank them a bit, giving a strong muscles for fast movements, and a mouth full of small, sharp and poisonous teeths. Those little fellows actually rip their prey to shreds after they paralyze the victim. Poison in itself isn’t that strong, but it works after a few bites.

As for the last cave, I created a small, secret path to an enclosed space with modified bunnies and squirrels. Bunnies were shrunk to a size of a fist, with a very soft, fluffy white fur. I had to tone down their tendency to breed incessantly to keep their numbers down. They are also very mellow in nature, not prone to being scared. Squirrels were turned to a half of their size, with a vibrant red fur and a fluffy tail. Somehow I get the feeling that Elan has been spending most of his time in there, even wanting me to move his home there.

Currently my domain was thick with mana, even passively seeping downwards. I have been expanding there as I keep wondering the layout for my second floor. My domain reached a 60 meter depth already, and my mana reserves have grown to a two hundred times my original amount. Now, should I create a circular pathway, or stairway downwards as I broke my cave theme with my core room.

While I was pondering my options, I felt a familiar presence asking a permission to project an avatar. Debating whether to ignore him or not, I sighed with a resignation while I gave him permission. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t just spy on me, with our deal and all.

With a twirl of shadows, Trendal appeared with a frown on his face.

“Do you know what you’ve done! You idiotic dungeon! I have had my hands full of taking care that mess that follows me everywhere!”, he exclaimed with indignation.

“What mess? Only thing I have done within these months is… Oh.”

“Oh!? Is that all you can say? By the Mazzak’s moustache, I tell you what you’ve caused!”, slapping his hand on his forehead, Trendal leaned backwards and gave a mournful sigh. “During your rank-up, you did something that managed to get Goddess of Wind, Ilessa to keep asking me if I would know about some weird and rude dungeon core. Now she has been hounding me for the last two months, before I managed to ditch her! I haven’t even had time to enjoy myself, and had to work all the time! WORK!”

Turning sideways towards alcove in my room, keeping his tragic posture, he then pointed there. “I demand an explanation of what you did to get her attention!”. As soon as he finished his words, he then suddenly pointed straight at my core on the ceiling, with a slight blush creeping on his neck.

“Wait, was that amateur I met during my rank-up an actual goddess? I thought she was some young deity seeing as easily I tricked her…”

Hearing this, Trendal immediately perked up, stopped his posturing, and summoned himself a cushioned armchair made from shadows. Sitting down he proceeded to take relaxed position, with one leg over the armrest, eyes glimmering with interest. “Oh do tell me more. I know how those rank-ups usually go, and Liriel, the Goddess of Death, with her domain of souls is in charge of them. Some three hundred years ago, Ilessa lost a bet with her, and had to handle some work for her. Now, quickly tell me all the juicy details you can, and I’ll forget the troubles you brought upon me.”

***

As I finished explaining the events that happened during my rank-up, skipping the knowledge I was provided, I was greeted with Trendal roaring in laughter, tears streaking down on his face, armchair toppled down with him sprawled upon it.

At this point Elan came from his petting zoo, and promptly froze upon seeing a God of Darkness sprawled upon a fallen armchair, pounding the floor with his fist, and laughing his ass twitching in the air. Elan stiffly turned around, and headed back through the entrance tunnel to rest area.

As Trendal got himself under control, shadows covered the area. As they dissipated, he was once again in the same position on the armchair as before, tidied up, still snickering to himself.

“By the Tira’s bouncing booty and perky tits, no wonder Ilessa almost lost it and harassed me about you. She wouldn’t live it down in ages to come, that a few months old dungeon core told her off, treated her like a kid caught with a hand in a cookie jar, “extorted” advanced knowledge, and hustled her to keep quiet about the peculiarities of the core. All the while she only needed to take a good look at your soul domain to avoid it! Bravo! Now I can extort her to let me laz… Do my work in peace. Yes.”, Trendal finished with a small cough, before chuckling again.

“I’ve been meaning to ask, but who are those you keep mentioning when you exclaim at something?” Taking this a good moment to ask about something as he was in good mood.

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“Oh, Mezzak and Tira? They’re just other major divines. Mezzak, God of Fire, has an impressive handlebar moustache. While Tira, Goddess of Water, happens to have a domain over passion, and a body fit to ignite it. Thus my frequent comments about her wonderful assets.”, Trendal said with a lewd smile, his eyes slowly losing focus.

With a start he returned to his senses and proceeded to explain more. “Ahem, there are eight gods in this dimension, yours truly being one of them. There are the necessary God of Life, Kelthar, and Goddess of Death, Liriel. They are accompanied by elemental gods. Goddess of Earth, Destria, God of Fire, Mezzak, Goddess of Water, Tira, and the one you met with, Goddess of Air, Ilessa. Then there is that pompous prick known as God of Light, Othar. And finally the most awesome of them all, the ever charming favorite of the ladies both mortal and divine, God of Darkness, the Handsome Rogue, Trendal.”, he then finished with a flourish of his right hand, while keeping left upon his heart. It would have looked more impressive if Trendal wasn’t still lazing in his armchair, one leg over the armrest.

Grinning at me, he proceeded to sit more normally. “Now how is your dungeon going? I imagine you still have some work to do before being ready for human intruders, as normally that takes at least couple years for dungeons?”.

“The hell? I finished my first floor just now, and was planning for a second. Now I don’t know how other dungeon cores do their job, but I’m happy with mine. Couldn’t you just look how I’ve been doing?” I asked incredulously. I doubt my dungeon is normal by any standard.

“Well that would be boring! I like surprises, and knowing it all beforehand ruins those! Last time I had time to see your progress was two months ago! Normally dungeon cores need to be at rank three to possess a threat, besides a pitfall, to adventurers. At that point they can create monsters, posing a threat to a novice adventurer or soldier.”, Trendal said with a thoughtful expression while scratching his head.

“Well, take a look at the cave that’s directly behind of the alcove, there is a good example of my dungeon for you.” I said while mentally snickering. Trendal was excited as he stared to the direction I mentioned, before growing an incredulous expression and cocking one of his eyebrows.

“I hope you’re just messing with me with that meadow within a cave. The hell is with those fluffy mini-bunnies and squirrels? And that house! By the Kelthar’s wrinkles, you spent time creating square vines growing in circle and leaves looking like tiles for a roof? And why is Elan just lying there, looking half-dead with blank eyes, while those fluffy critters swarm over him?”, Trendal was growing more and more dissatisfied with each passing moment.

“Whoops, that was Elan’s petting zoo and a rest area. My bad. Well, let us go on a walk through the caves. Let me know how it compares to other dungeons.” I let my amusement to show through. With a humph, Trendal stood up and dismissed his armchair.

***

As Trendal reached the entrance of my dungeon, he was giddy with excitement as he twirled around arms wide, his cape fluttering. “I wasn’t wrong about you! Your current floor is downright deadly for prepared beginners, not to mention random stragglers. I really love what you did with those traps and critters! Most amusing thing was how bloodthirsty and brutal they have become. Especially when a group of squirrels ambushed those wounded bunnies, after they were massacring a bunch of those smaller snakes!”

I ignored his theatrics and asked a question I had wondered for a some time. Doesn’t any other dungeon have sophisticated traps, puzzles or something like that?

Shaking his index finger with a smirk, Trendal continued, “Nooope! They’re triggered traps, magical traps, pitfalls and such. They’re meant to kill, nothing fancy about them. Besides, before you learn more about your abilities as a dungeon, you’re not gonna get a chance to make too complex of a dungeon. As a thanks for an amusing tour, I’ll let you on a secret. Dungeons also use inscription when they make their stuff. The way they use them is different from normal though, so do your best to learn them!”

Might as well create the second floor then. My vipers have managed to kill a few new animals entering the first cave during the last months, so I’m thinking about creating a larger caves below the first floor. As of now, this radius of 300 meters is already packed full of activity, and caves are too small for anything bigger than they currently have.

“Sounds like you have a plan then, my rounded friend! Keep up the good work, and I’ll pop up later to check your progress.”, Trendal said in a jovial tone, before turning serious. “However, I suggest you keep up the fast pace you’ve been growing at. Ilessa is currently influencing mortals with her domains of travel and luck, both aimed at discovering you. Reason being most likely for causing trouble and screwing her over. Even if you didn’t cause any damage, just the humiliation of being tricked by a mortal is enough for her to be angry for a few years. Most likely you will see humanoids discovering you soon enough.”

Damn, I thought I had more time to grow in power. Well, at least I will be able to learn a lot more when absorbing humanoids and their gear. I commented with a mental shrug.

Now Trendal got his usual shit-eating grin on his face as he said, “You will most likely see her again during your next rank-up. If she tries to cause trouble or “forgets” to mention something, just say that you’ll pray to Liriel to handle your affairs if she is intentionally sabotaging you. Goddess of Death has domains over souls, judgement and wisdom, and she has a quite vindictive stride if someone messes up her work on purpose.”, ending with a knowing shudder, Trendal starts to fade in the shadows.

“Try not get yourself killed before I come visit again!”, Trendal says, while leaving only his shit-eating grin visible for a moment, before that too disappears.

“Don’t worry, I’m the one planning to do the killing around these parts.” I said to the faded presence.

Now, let’s see if I can expand deep enough for what I had planned.

I return to my core, as the next part is easiest here. Using mana from both of domain, and my core, I first spread it over my current domain. From there I start slowly pressing it down, expanding the influence I have deeper, crossing the 60 meter mark with ease. With my current domain still having a dense mana, I easily reached the depth of 70 meters, before my mana started running low, and pressure against descending is rising. While meditating to regain my mana, I went over with what to use for the next part.

I have some animals I have yet to use, as I have kept two vipers hiding within the first room to kill new arrivals. I already have foxes and wolves, some birds I had to corrupt as vipers couldn’t reach them, variety of different flora as well. I might try to even grow some trees next, as my previous caves were too short. For other surprises I might as well create something plant based as I have yet to experiment with it. I was too busy with modifying souls, as knowledge from it gave me ideas for my current fluffy killers.

Alright, the goal it at least 90 meters below my current floor! Might as well give heads up to Elan before I finalize my plans. I thought while focusing upon his zoo, only seeing Elan still laying on the ground, face down, and covered under mass of white fur with streaks of red.

“Hey Elan! I know what I’m going to do for the next floor, let me give you a rundown…” I started before he cut me off.

“Leave me alone! I haven’t recovered from the shock Lord Trendal gave me with his ridiculous appearance! I absolutely refuse to leave here before I have wiped the events from my memory!”, Elan yelled, scaring the fluffy mass off him. He stood up with a stern expression, took a bunny and a squirrel under his arms, and walked to his house with brisk steps. I stared at the furry mass of white and red bouncing after him.

“Right, take however long you need! I’m going to go and build the second floor.” I said, slightly confused. Trendal was an idiot, lazy, and used a lot of theatrics. But no one has said the gods had to be dignified. They may spread the image of such for their gods, or imagine how their god should be. I don’t know about that, and I don’t like divinities that much. So I don’t care how they act.

Now that I’m expecting visitors, I might as well complete my doorway according to the starting race I chose. I decided to form the shape inside the stone, before removing the extra. I wouldn’t want to make a mistake as I can’t spread my domain to the outside air. I chose my vipers for the model, and created a massive, 5 meters tall and 3 wide snake-head, with an open maw and sharp teeths almost reaching the ground. Spending a lot of time to make it realistic as possible, and creating it from obsidian, I ended up needing a rest from lack of mana before it would be ready.

After a few hours of rest, I also decided to create an archway, that looked like a mass of snakes rushing towards the entrance, within the mouth of the viper head. The archway led to a short tunnel, walls filled with lifelike carvings of snakes. Strengthening the obsidian to the limit, creating a stronger stone than the granite I usually use, I removed the layering stone and revealed my work to the world! Or at least to the forest. Nevertheless, my new entrance had no rough spots, glistening darkly in the sunlight. Maybe they think it only has snakes in it. No matter, it was imposing enough. Chuckling at the thought, that someone fearing snakes might not make through the door without soiling themselves. Snake carvings within the doorway seemed to dance as shadows moved.

Going back to my meditation, I decided to focus my efforts on my incoming expansion, in case certain goddess manages to get some adventurers traveling here. I need new furry or scaled killers here, and a safer location for my core.