After several seconds, you let out a sign and push the notification away.

There was still some work to be done on the first floor first, and you didn't want to be stuck with whatever hidden cost you would no doubt be saddled with for levelling up your dungeon until you were better prepared.

Besides, you're short walk had show just how unprepared you were, and you already had... ideas.

With some mental maths, you worked out your excess resources; if you left enough for the lair up, you had 504 units of Stone, 187 units of Wood, and 26 units of Scrap Ore. You frowned a little – the set costs for levelling up your lair didn't seem to take into account the various rarities of what it was asking for. You tutted, but there was nothing for it. At least it wasn't touching any of the actually rare materials your minions had gathered, like gems.

Your first step was to scroll through your fame options and grab one that you'd had your eye on for a long time

Faster Construction, 250 fame

and then with a little more mental working out, you pressed Draconic Leigelord 3 times, wincing as the cost doubles each time.

Your Fame buffs now read:

Champion Feathers

Champion Sapphire

Empowered Sapphire; Combat

Empowered Hyena; Combat

Empowered Feathers; Combat

Faster Construction

Draconic Leigelord 6/10

Purchaced Worker 2/11

This drops your fame down to 204, which is fine by you. Fame by itself didn't get you squat. As tempting as it had been to use the 800 fame you'd just spent to buy a ton of the strange, almost robotic Kobold Workers, after a few looks through your sheets it had become clear that although they were reanimatable and tireless workers, they did not count towards your population (Yet another resource to keep growing) and there was a limit to how many hands that could barely hold a weapon you needed.

You walked into the spring room, intending to head to the far side of the arena and put your building plans into action, but a habitual glance into the water brought you up short.

You eyes practically burn with authority. Your horns, despite having not moved, are now so obviously a crown that you're not sure how you never saw it before. You blink, and shake the unsettling effect away. Your horns were horns. Your eyes were eyes. The entire population of your dungeon had assembled before you, seemingly without prompting.

Sapphire, in her leather straps, was gaping open mouthed at you.

Feathers had a grim smile on her face.

The four Kobolds the Sapphire had brought back with her had taken to their knees, looking at you in awe.

The two remaining, mobile, goblins; one battled scarred and missing an eye, the other wearing a floppy cook's hat, let tension you could see drain from them.

Amanda and Mercy gaped at you, from the back of the crowd.

“Wow”

“Holy fuck.”

The moment stretched for several seconds, before Feathers gave you a measured nod. A second later, she was smacking the goblins about the back of their heads with the butt of her glaive.

“Work! Back to work! Time for stare? Time for more work!”

The crowd dispersed, but despite Feather's words there wasn't much to be done yet and your minions huddled in doorways and shadows, staring still.

You let them, as you reached the far side of your area, and fell into the trance of planning once again.

The first thing you decided on was to improve the goblin's cave. Despite not being particularly close to where you are, you manipulate the menu until you've jutted a short, wide tunnel away from their upper level. Beyond that, keeping the natural feel, you placed a lumpy, misshapen room with three tiers, each one smaller than the last, with the vague idea of letting Feather's claim the highest area as her own.

Your mind gives a hiccup, and another option appears.

Designate area as Goblin Village?

This will let your goblins build there as if the area was claimed by them, and unlock several upgrades for them.

You considered it for a second, but then, that was what you'd always promised, wasn't it? You hit accept, and saw several of your minions peel away to go and work on your new orders.

Next, you focus on the wall actually in front of you. With a small flex of your creative muscles, you order an archway to be carved, and set a square room as long as your entrance hall beyond it. Something prompts you to leave a thick pillar in the centre, and you move on to the left wall of the new room.

One long, tapering corridor later, and you try something new – setting a room above a corridor. You choose one of roughly the same shape as the taper you've just made, but larger in every way, and with some fiddling it clicks into place. Then you do it again, and once more, creating a three tiered valley above the corridor floor. A little more fiddling and you riddle the cliff-like faces with small caves. Then, away from the top level, you make one cave that's much bigger than the others, with several rocks and stalegs of both types. Again, you envisage this being a room for Sapphire and... ugh, I really need to have a word with her about naming things, Hyena to rest.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Designate area as Kobold Village?

This will let your kobolds build there as if the area was claimed by them, and unlock several upgrades for them.

Again, you hit yes. Having a place for your minions to live had been on your mind since you got the goblins.

Again, something told you to go back to the pillar room and place a small, square room behind it.

You chewed at your lip for a moment, wondering why you had done that. There was no reason, that you could think of, that would make sense for a small, empty room to be placed there. You racked your brain for a few seconds. Nothing came to you. There was a fuzzy feeling of something... Missing?

You went back over your recent notifications

-250 You purchased Faster Construction

-320 You purchased Draconic Leigelord 6/10

-160 You purchased Draconic Leigelord 5/10

-80 You purchased Draconic Leigelord 4/10

+180 A Hero has Declared you her Nemesis! (Expanded

Mhæri Flickervin (Level 18) has made it her mission to destroy you!

-400 Evolved

That... that seems to be in order, doesn't it? You think back, but it's like probing a space where a tooth used to be with your tongue. You run your tongue against the teeth that Mercy regrew for you, distracted, and turn your attention to the third wall of the pillar room. Reaching your stone stockpile, which is at 364, you nod. She did say it would be for the best, after all.

One truncated S of a corridor later, you spend the vast majority of your remaining stone to hollow out the largest chamber you can. The end result is an egg shape longer but thinner than the arena. Then you hum to yourself.

Mercy did say that she had issues with keeping trees alive... you wonder if you might be able to help there.

Nothing for it for now, however, so you accept the construction and let your Kobolds get to work. You smile at the new modifier that shows up when you punch the wall next to them.

Skill level, -40%. No Tools, -50%. Dexterity Penalty, +0%, Faster Construction +100% Total Build speed: 60%

Yes, you could certainly get used to that.

With your remaining stone, you turn your mind and menu to the final idea that had bubbled up, or at least the final one using the construction menu.

Construct Tunnel? 15 stone

Warning, your tunnel dimensions are too small for you to use. Proceed anyway?

And with two taps of the yes button every few seconds, you riddled your lair with tunnels. 16 of them, to be exact, taking your stone from 364 down to 124. You added entrances to this network everywhere. Two in the goblin village, one by the workshop and another in the cave next to the entrance. One near the spring, two in the larger hidden in caves. Two in the dining room, and one in the jail. One in the arena, one in the roof of the archway you had just set to be built, two in Mercy's cavern, and three in the Kobold village. Then you spent 4 stone on every entrance except the two in the larder to give them camouflaged entrances and bring you down, somewhat roughly, to exactly 65 stone.

You know it will take a few days before any of your improvements except the goblin expansion will show, but you think it'll be worth it. Almost every minion you have is much smaller than you at this point, and your hidden network will hopefully allow them to even the odds against any adventurers who come in the future.

Almost as an afterthought, you make one last tunnel. This one stretches from the water spring, under your entrance hall, neatly takes away the bottom of your pit trap, and then bursts out of the side of the mountain. Now instead of a 5 foot drop that might, if you're lucky, disorient an attacker, you have a probable deathtrap for the unwary. As a side effect, this also drops your stone down to the exact 50 you need to reserve. This still leaves you with some 180 wood and 20 metal that you can use without digging into your reserve.

You ponder for a few minutes and see about populating Mercy's as of yet unbuilt cavern with trees. She did say something about a Grove, right? Some fiddling later and you find the option. For 30 wood you can create “Living Tree”. You dismiss that menu rather than accepting it. You doubt that A; a normal tree will like Mercy all that much, and B; that it would survive in a cave anyway.

Leaving that for a moment, you reconsider the Kobold village. At it's widest, near the top of the cavern, the floors were some dozen feet away from each other. With a moment's concentration and the furnishings menu, you fashion a few wooden walkways and thin ladders to criss cross the room. Then, following that train of thought, you move to the dining room and reclaim the rough furniture there, replacing it with the blueprints for two long tables with benches, and a handful of smaller tables with chairs. Backing out of there, you ring the arena with wooden seating, bringing your stocks down to 84.

You take 5 and place a bed blueprint in one of the jail cells, sacrificing a fur to cover it, and then ass you hit accept manually walk down there and cover the iron bars of the door to that cell with another fur for some level of privacy.

You nod to yourself, and call for Amanda. While you wait, you take the leftover 29 wood and just eject it from your stocks in the middle of the goblin village for them to do with as they pleased.

When Amanda shows up a few moments later, her eyes are wide as she stares around at the dank jail. You wince and rush into an explanation.

“I know this isn't perfect, nor permanent. But I've told the kobolds to build you a bed. Hopefully it'll be better than the floor, and this is about as private as you can get at the minute.”

She's silent, as she opens the cell door and sees the bed blueprint. You wait, somewhat anxiously, for her verdict. You like the redhead, and a lot of the shit in her life can be directly attributed to you. You never thought you'd feel sorry for an adventurer, but there you go.

Amanda turns to face you at last, and gives a small nod to herself. “You aren't going to lock me in here without my permission or anything?”

You shake your head, wondering at her word choice.

She nods. “Then it'll do plenty. Thank you.”