I was surprised when the first group of humans and Beastkin wandered into my territory above. It woke me from the deep trance of gathering power, and annoyed me as I felt like I was close to gathering enough power to expand. While my instincts had really begun to pull at me to destroy them, I kept a lid on it while I watched them search around. They clearly found the circle I had made, and seemed to wave their arms a lot about it. Which gave me hope that it would keep them away from my entrance, and allow me to maybe sneak a bite out of their group. I just needed one of them to live long enough to get a good idea of how to make them. Then, I would just have to make the improvements that I had been bouncing around with. The world would be something I could experience then, and the excitement allowed me to focus back on my own power and expansion.

If I had to describe the feeling I was getting as I approached the next level. It would have to be a pressure building around my core, and one that felt very uncomfortable. I knew I wouldn't break from this, my instincts told me so, but it still made me want to back away and stop. Then, all at once, like it had never been there I just felt normal. I expected to feel a rush of power, and maybe even some lights or sounds. Instead, I just saw more around me, and could reach deeper and higher. It was so normal that I almost wanted to have a talk with my instincts just to complain about the banal nature of the advancement.

'At least I can feel my level of fine control has improved, and I think my plans for everything should be possible now with my level of perception.' My thoughts tumbling through my core, and trying to get my annoyance calmed down. Being annoyed, angry, or distressed seemed to give my instincts something to work with, because I almost lashed out at the intruders. Most of them were asleep now, but at least two of them had very sharp spikes only a few spans from their bodies. Before I realized what was going on and stopped the spell. That would have certainly attracted more attention than I wanted. Instead I tried to test what my new limits were, and found that it had almost doubled from what I had before. As well as being centered on my core directly. So, if I moved my core deeper, which I felt I should do to gather mana more quickly and efficiently, then my surface reach would drop as well. Though, I would have more room to expand downwards. I contemplated, for a little while at least, of making my dungeon and core be a floating structure on the surface. Surely, then I could move around and have the freedom I wanted, and while it might gather more attention I could be well worth it. Then, the pain started and everything went black.

When I could sense again, i had a feeling it had been a while, and my instincts warned me about thoughts of flying. Something about this place wanted me here, deeper in perhaps, but giving too much thought to the above world seemed to trigger those feelings of pain again. I decided I didn't like the idea, let alone the feeling, of pain, and put the idea of a floating castle out of mind. With a series of grumbling sounds in my core I started to shape the next floor. The first floor was a kind of maze with rooms of forests and hills scattered around. I had even made it look like there was a sky in the ceiling, because the plants and animals needed it. In the books most dungeons had a theme that they stuck to for each floor. Like a forest getting deeper and darker woods, or mazes becoming more ornate. My instincts seemed to like the idea of more mazes, but I wasn't happy with them, and decided to do something else. In fact, I decided to make a story happen with my dungeon, and my expansions would allow me to make more. So I started off by creating natural pillars as I removed the rock and soil of the next level.

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I made seven pillars that would hold up the ceiling of the chamber as I hollowed it out, and created arches and tiered supports along side them. My estimate of the space was about twice as deep as the first floor, and then another after I moved my core down into the space. If I had to guess I could have almost 20 of those humans standing on each other from floor to ceiling, and it was just about enough to start my story. In my favorite book, 'A Song of Fire', there was a girl who born to a powerful family, but they cast her out for not listening to her father. I didn't understand all of it, and likely missed a few things, but I liked the girl's story. So I would make it here. I had a stairway come out of a wall within a large house they called a 'manor', and then carved passages from the story into the walls. Only the ones that were about the house since that just made sense. Then, I made a slope leading down into a large space I would grow into a forest, with the pillars and hanging rocks making it more interesting. I would have to wait until the trees grew to make the next story parts carved onto their wood, but with mana and Intent it wouldn't be long.

I wondered if I would be able to use Intent to create the fights the girl got into when she passed through the woods. Since I wanted everyone to experience the same story if I could, and that would make it fun. However, since I didn't really want hordes of people down here, it would be more for me than anything else. So, I decided to just make my defenders have a nice, natural home instead. Maybe I could use Intent to have them maintain everything just in case though. So, I carved a winding path through the future forest to the foot of a large slope I would have as a mountain. The next floor would be the caves and caverns the girl passed through before stumbling upon a might dragon. Making a dragon was a problem for future me, so I put it out of mind while I got back to turning my dull outline into a picture like the books. In minutes seeds appeared in the ground followed by a fog of water and minerals rich in mana. The trees visibly grew from the tough soil, and I figured it would take a couple days to get the really big trees to the size I wanted them.

The book talked about 'Plaster', and so I made some textured rock inside the manor along with lots of glowing flowers. Since it would be dark in there, and I might have my future children live in it. I also made some stuff out of wood and stone that humanoids seemed to need. Like 'beds', 'tables', 'teapots', etc. And like the times before I snapped out of my creating focus to realize that days had passed. The few creatures I had brought down from above were doing well, and the forest had fully developed. I could now start making the words in the trees, but stopped when I focused on what ACTUALLY snapped me out of it. Some of those Beastkin were coming towards my entrance cave.