“FINALLY, oh my gosh, that took how many days?"
"Roughly about 158 hours, which is about 5 days and 18 hours."
"Huh?...Oh, right, a different world with different hours for days. Still, it felt like weeks of mining and expanding, the job being so monotonous and tedious."
"Well, good work with that; I'm sure the next one will be much more exciting, if not just as taxing."
"You know you are becoming a lot snarkier now."
"Ohh, and do you regret making and allowing me."
"Naah, bring it. I've got years worth of internet BS to be fazed by that."
As I viewed the entrance I made in the middle of the mountain, I could feel the wind coming in and sunlight coming through. Seeing as a dungeon core is much more than when I was human. Using Mana Sense, I could feel everything within my aura, and all the information didn’t make my head explode, thanks to Enhanced Mind. It also allows me to split my mind and multi-task, my abilities increasing in capability as my level goes up.
“So, are you ready to build your dungeon? Now that you have an entrance, you can designate your floor and create monsters and/or traps. Even though it will take some time for anyone to come here since this is such an isolated and prohibited place, it’s always good to be prepared.”
"Yep, before that, what does Extraction and Create Resources specifically do?"
"Extraction is only usable on dungeon floors; instead of absorbing things for mana, you absorb the schematic for it, allowing you to replicate it with Duplication. Create Resources allows you to designate spots on your dungeon floor, making them into nodes where the resources in them will be regenerated if any are missing. They will spawn in different locations within the node in a day's time."
Hearing the abilities of Extraction made me light up as it would be a tremendous help to my plan.
“Aiden, I request your aid in something.”
“Sure, what is it.”
‘Huh, didn’t think they would ever ask me for help.’
“Will you allow me to use your mana to construct a body?”
“Sure, but you can do that?!”
Companion chuckles as they give their thanks.
“Thank you, and yes, all companions are capable of doing it.”
At the end of those words, I feel my mana drain from my core, forming a ball of mana emitting a soft glow. Soon, appendages started growing, settling in a humanoid form with wings. Then, the form takes on more details; the head gains a face, ears, and hair; human hands and feet instead of the stumps before; the body gets curves and grooves; and finally, the wings start to become two sets of wings shaped like a dragonfly’s.
When all the glowing mana at the beginning was converted to making this fairy at a height of 50 cm, with short white hair, white eyes, an androgynous white face, and a white body. No nails, belly button, genitals, or even blood and veins as if carved entirely out of marble.
Soon, the fairy starts twitching to life and finally moves as they speak in the same genderless and monotonous tone.
“Well, this is certainly something new.”
They try to adapt to their body moving and flying around, perplexion on their face.
“So, Aiden, why this form?”
“Huh, what do you mean?”
“A companion body is created from the dungeon’s mana, influencing their forms. So, what was on your mind when creating this body.”
At that, I thought about it but didn’t get anything as I wasn’t even aware I could influence it, but for my guess.
“Probably because on Earth, it’s a trope for dungeons having dungeon fairies. I think that in my subconscious mind, I thought you would be a fairy.”
“Intriguing. Anyhow, I asked for a body so that I may procure specimens outside for you to extract. If you would please extend your aura to the outside, as I can only function within your aura.”
“Got it.”
As I watched my companion fly through the tunnel to the surface, I expanded my aura from the entrance to down the mountain. During the tunneling process, I realized that it became much easier and faster with each use of absorbing and expanding my aura. I was currently making a single-use capable of filling meters of volume. I then went on to ask something about the companion.
“Hey, I can still feel your soul inside my core, so what’s up with that?”
Companion still flying answers through our bond.
“This body is but a shell, meaning even if it was destroyed, you can always rebuild it, but it is also the reason I cannot leave your aura.”
As I continued to expand to the end of the mountain, near the end, I came across a field of green. Expanding further, I came across a forest. A few hundred meters into the forest, my companion, who had entered the forest, stopped me.
“Aiden, that’s quite enough. I can see kilometers of woodlands. Expanding further will most likely not allow me to procure new specimens. You can start building your floor now.”
I see my companion fly about as they forage for anything new. Thinking about it, I designate my entrance as a dungeon floor, mentioning to my companion they could unload it there for me to extract.
Putting my attention back to my core, I begin doing the first part of my plan. First, I used Extraction on all the stuff inside my Interdimensional Storage I saved as instructed by my companion, with each extraction gaining much more in-depth knowledge of their structure. When I finished with that, I started using my title, Knowledge of Another World, to create the things needed for my plan, not only using Extraction to understand it better but registering them with Create Resources, as testing it out Knowledge of Another World takes 10 times more mana than when using Create Resources.
After creating and extracting everything I needed, I divided my mind into two: one to expand and one to absorb. Starting from my entrance, I created a long, straight hallway, 100 meters long, enough to fit two people. Once finished, I started making room for my first floor from the end of the hallway. By the time my companion finished foraging everything and some more, I had finished my floor room, which was roughly a 5-kilometer cube.
My companion was surprised, sensing the size of my floor.
"Just how many floors is this?"
"Three floors in total."
"Now what?"
"Well, remember how I asked you about some schematics and learned them while tunneling for the entrance? I'm going to use them now."
"Which one?"
"You'll see."
I focused on the 5km cube, especially feeling the boundaries of the cube; what I'm about to do is to expand the space here. This is possible due to the specialty of floor boundaries being invulnerable and being durable enough to withstand such a volume of expansion. It’s possible to do this with gases and liquids, too, but that would be incredibly harder for me with all the movements. It doesn't matter for other dungeons since the system helps, but I'm cheesing it here, so it's one of the reasons I chose to build inside the mountain since the room will be surrounded by solid everywhere.
After thoroughly feeling the space, I start converting all the ambient mana to space mana, adding my own mana where there's not enough, and filling the cube with it. Then, when it comes to the faces, I intertwine and structure the mana like a lattice covering the whole cube. Finally, I isolate this space and leave an entry in the hallway.
As I moved and twisted the space, I could feel other forces following and coexisting with the space mana, a force that bent the space and synchronized with the space. As I focus on those forces taking control and manipulating them to make my task easier, I hear The System message.
You have unlocked Time Affinity
You have unlocked Gravity Affinity
At that, I mentally smile and sigh with relief, glad that my plan might be doable and not completely crazy.
Finally, I could feel the space exist in another realm yet still present here, anchored to the hallway. I observe the entrance from the hallway to the floor and see how the space is distorted, becoming hazy, and becoming unable to see like steamed glass after a shower, preventing visibility from inside to outside and vice versa.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
All of that work was to isolate it so that I could alter it. I feel the isolated space and the space mana filling the cube, locking onto it, then manipulating it to twist and turn, eventually folding the space onto itself and doubling the space. I try as many times as possible and eventually fold it two more times with great effort as the space is expanded by 8 times, reaching my limit.
The cube now from the outside is only roughly 5 kilometers, but the expanded space and volume inside is 40 cubic kilometers.
Then, I feel enormous mental fatigue crashing on me as I fall to sleep.
----------------------------------------
A few hours later, I feel my consciousness waking up. I see my companion next to my core, and I sense their worry.
"Aiden! You're awake."
Relief washes over them as they feel my awakening
"Yep, didn't know that would happen. I guess I overdid it, huh?"
"Yes, yes you did, Aiden. What you did caused extreme mental fatigue. You automatically went into deep sleep mode, making you recover faster than regular sleeping but not being able to wake up unless fully rested. You are really something, you know that?"
"I'll take that as a compliment. But, hey, look, the space now is huge!!"
My companion sighed but followed my lead
"Yes, honestly, I'm surprised you were able to do so. I thought you would be lucky if you could only manage to fold it once."
"Hehe, what can I say? I am awesome."
"Fine, I'll give you that since normally dungeons spend most of their mana for The System to intervene in something like space expansion. But having too much space isn't always good. You do have plans to use all of it, right?"
“Not to worry, let’s get this started!”
I moved my attention to my now 40 cubic kilometers-volume floor, proud and excited. However, the large expanse of dark nothingness was kind of creepy, so I decided to fill it out quickly.
First, I focus one of my mind on the earth in the forest, feeling its structure and the life brimming in it. My other mind replicates the mana movement and structure as the mana takes the form of earth and also imbuing life mana into it, mimicking the movements of the ones in the forest.
You have unlocked Earth Affinity
You have unlocked Nature Affinity
With that, I start filling the bottom with earth. As I was doing that, I started absorbing and storing the air. Next, separating and sorting them, I filled nitrogen in an enclosed space, manipulating the mana merged within the nitrogen to coalesce and crystallize the structure into a solid.
You have unlocked Air Affinity
You have unlocked Crystal Affinity
I added them to the soil, as well as potassium and phosphorus, which I found in the stone I mined while tunneling. ‘There’s just somehow this stuff in this mountain, and underground, I mean not complaining, probably has to do with there being magic.’
Finally, I take out ores and extract the metal from them. By moving the mana within the ore, focusing on the mana combined with the metal bits, the metal slowly moves and breaks free as they meld together outside, sprinkling flakes of them into the soil.
You have unlocked Metal Affinity
A few hours later, five kilometers deep, earth filled the bottom of the space. As I kept on doing it, I was able to produce more each time, taking less time than I thought.
Next, to create magical mycelium, earthworms, ants, millipedes, and rolly pollies. Some schematics were learned by creating their corpses with Knowledge of Another World and extracting them afterward.
Using Create Monster, I first decide on what to create within my mental map of monsters and creatures schematics. I notice my trait, Mad Scientist of Amalgamation, take effect, allowing me to alter the preset in my mind as I make it healthier, improving its resilience, strength, abilities, and organs. I basically optimized their genes to be the one-in-a-million genetically blessed creature.
After choosing and optimizing the preset, I activated Create Monster. Times seemed to slow down, and as my mind accelerated, I felt the movement of mana. My mana moved from my core through the dungeon floors to my first floor, coalescing and taking form. That's when I knew I should strike. I combined them with the components from plant and fungi-type monsters to allow them to absorb nutrients from the ground and some from light. I injected more of my mana, converting it to nature, earth, and life mana, imbuing them to better fertilize and enrich the life within the earth. As I finish making my adjustments with some mental fatigue, the mana takes form and life.
Monsters are technically creatures without sentience, having a certain amount of mana. These fungi, insects, and worms may barely count as monsters, but for dungeons, a mob is a monster that has evolved at least once. So, thankfully, they don’t take up the limit for mobs per floor.
Another thing I am thankful for is I can use Duplication to create the exact same monsters with less mana and mental burden. I kept spamming Duplication to create lifeforms to enrich the soil and bring it to life. 1 and a half hours in, I covered the whole ground, learning to create multiple of them at once.
Before creating them, I was worried about creating life forms, but as I created them, I saw and felt them not as life forms but as cells. My heart was the core, my floor the body, and monsters as cells. I mean, countless cells died in my body every day, and I didn’t feel anything about that. As that notion set in, I didn’t worry about feeling sad about monsters dying. Even though I created them, they were more like robots and machines doing their jobs.
Now, onto the main part: plants. I started creating the most basic of plant monsters, optimizing their genes and combining them with different components for my plan. First, I combined the plant monsters' structure with basil, sage, thyme, dill, lavender, mint, and any other edible herb I have eaten or touched. Enhancing the flavors to the limit while injecting life and nature mana. The combination was a breeze as they had perfect compatibility.
Next, I did the same but with vegetables, carrots, onion, kale, celery, tomatoes, cucumber and any other. Following the spices, saffron, anise, ginger, garlic, cumin, pepper, and everything I have ever tasted. Salt was a little tricky, but I managed. Then, there are fruits, apples, peaches, cherries, apricots, grapes, oranges, you name them. The next ones were tricky as they needed another component from a different monster race.
I first unlocked water affinity, combining hydrogen and oxygen with the help of air mana.
You have unlocked Water Affinity
Then, I made a water crystal I learned from my companion by combining water mana and mana crystals that are abundant near my core. A crystal capable of converting mana to the affinity imbued.
Then, I created a 15-kilometer stone mountain at one of the corners, furthest from the entrance. While at it, I surrounded all the edges with 9 to 10 kilometers of stone, making the place look like it was in a canyon. I then returned to the 15-kilometer mountain cliff thing, increasing its width and bulging it out to make it stand out from the rest of the wall.
You have unlocked Stone Affinity
I placed several water crystals in the crater I made at the top of the mountain. As water is produced and the crater fills up, I make a passageway for the water to fall. Soon, the water fell to the dugout I made out of clay, stone, silt, and sand, filling it with water as it formed a river with a large body of water in the middle that spread into smaller rivers, spreading out to the other places. Finally, the water merges again, and the excess is transferred back to the waterfall by connecting those spaces with space affinity.
Then, for the denizens inhabiting the waterfall and river, I first optimized the plant monster preset, then combined it with the mimics components, giving it the ability to mimic objects, combing them with catfish, trouts, eels, walleye, bass, and more and next making the meat as tasty as possible and injecting life and nature mana and also adding some aquatic plants and edible water lilies to the bodies of water.
Lastly, using the same method as above, but instead of fish, I did it with chicken, duck, turkey, rabbit, cow, sheep, pig, goat, deer, and lastly, for the heck of it, buffalo and alligator. (What, they were pretty good.) Finish it off by doing the same thing as the others, adding jungle and rainforest plants with some tropical fruits like cocoa, avocados, coconuts, pineapples, bananas, acai berries, and so much more, and also adding carnivorous plants in the mix.
To finish the landscape completely, I created a crystal of nature, life, and soul. By creating hydrogen by separating the excess water from the waterfall and letting oxygen fill the room, I used hydrogen and air mana to create three air crystals specifically for producing hydrogen. I then combust hydrogen by manipulating and speeding up the movement.
You have unlocked Heat Affinity
You have unlocked Fire Affinity
I used gravity mana to keep the life crystal stuck together with the air crystal, keeping them afloat in the middle of the ceiling, then surrounded them in a ball of burning hydrogen, manipulating the heat mana it produced to be injected into the crystals, converting the heat mana to life mana and hydrogen which in turn is used as the fuel for the fire with the surrounding air, using gravity mana to stay in form and keep afloat creating a cycle of an endless burning ball of light.
You have unlocked Light Affinity
The nature one gave off a red and orange color light as nature mana was mixed with the light mana, life was green, and soul had a slivery, hazy feel to it.
The life and nature one will help the plants grow, but for the soul, I started to alter and change it imbuing my intent and emotion.
For what is eternal life a blessing for a few and a curse for the other, to be unable to feel a curse to most yet a blessing for the broken, to be beautiful, some will revel in it, and some will abhor it, for one's death could be the blessing or curse for thousands.
Oh, what a blessing and curse it is to have an appetite and be hungry.
At that, I felt the soul crystal change. It’s still the same color, but somehow there is intent and emotion imbued.
You have unlocked Curse Affinity
You have unlocked Blessing Affinity
This floor is the Domain of Hunger; welcome to Nature’s Bountiful Garden.
All components met for Unique Floor
Floors 1-3 are designated as Nature’s Bountiful Garden
These are the following effects for Nature’s Bountiful Garden
Nature’s Bountiful Garden
-Gain 2 additional floor boss
-All mobs, elites, and floor bosses must be edible or have edible components
-All edibles produced on this floor will gain a major boost in taste, growth, and effects
-All plant-type monsters will gain generous boost to attributes
-All delvers will be cursed with the Curse of Hunger; if a similar curse is present, it will amplify the curse instead
-All delvers will gain a generous boost for harvesting consumables
-All food-related consumables get a generous boost if consumed within the dungeon floor