DC

For my eighth floor, I really need to work on making that new floor, for the goblins living in the village on the fifth floor. I begin working on it, and I basically just make it a giant wide open plain, with a small forest on the eastern edge for wood. The whole thing is 1170 feet in every direction.

I want a floor that takes a long time to get through, so instead of making it so you just have to find the gateway, I'm going to close the gateway, and make them find a key to get through. I'm also going to make the keys one time use, so they have to find it again every time they go through.

Most likely what I'll do is put a really high ranking intelligent monster as the gate guard, so you have to give the gate guard the key, and he will let you through. What I basically make is a giant goblin at A rank, but as I try to make it something happens. I run up against a barrier.

I turn my attention to Gairy. “Gairy, for some reason, I can't build this creature.”

Gairy looks up at the ceiling of his floor, and asks a question. “What rank was the creature?”

“High A rank.”

Gairy chokes, and laughs. “Of course you can’t make a high A rank creature, you're barely high C ranked.

“I'm confused, what do you mean?”

He nods, “Dungeons can't make a creature that is stronger than themselves, in rank.”

“Well…. Why?...” I ask petulantly.

He responds slowly. “Well because they are stronger than you. That might not explain it well enough, but our worlds are based purely on strength. Even you need to cultivate to grow stronger. You might not realize you’ve been doing it but when people die inside of you, you soak up some of their mana, correct?”

“Yeah.”

“Well you need to be actively doing that. It's different for people, but as a dungeon, you need to be actively pulling in the mana of people who die inside of you. As their mana enters you, it is spinning inside of you. People need to work actively to do this, but dungeon cores are like little mana furnaces.”

I quickly agree. “Yeah.”

“You are currently high C-ranking, you can break into the B ranks, by simply making your spiral bigger. But it's different when you break into the A ranks. This has been a natural barrier for dungeons for eons, and people have recognized this, so when you break past B ranks, and you can't go any farther, most likely a kingdom official will come, and guide you through the process.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I sigh. “Ok… So no A ranking monsters right off the bat?”

He chuckles, and responds. “No, sorry buddy.”

Then I need your help on something.

He sighs. “Ok.”

I've noticed people are having a really easy time getting through my big wide open floors, so for the eighth floor I wanted to force people to find a key, to get through a gate.

He nods. “Oh, ok. Dungeons don't usually make big open areas, because of this problem, and because most fairies don't know how to do what I'm about to show you.”

“Ok, hurry up man, I'm like vibrating with anticipation....”

Gairy chuckles, and nods. “Show me the area you want the gateway.”

I quickly guide him up to the area, where I want him to put the gateway.

He begins speaking. “Concentrate your mana into a thin, almost flake, right where you want the barrier.”

I follow his instruction, and begin pouring mana into it, as I do so I notice the mana concentration of the rest of my dungeon dropping rapidly, and so does my reserves. As I concentrate it all of a sudden Gairy starts to speak.

“Now solidify it.” In the same way you might make stone, or gold, you need to solidify your mana there.

CRACK, and where my mana was being concentrated sits an amber colored barrier.

He smiles, “now make another small piece, but really small, like the size of my fingernail, and probably embed it in something, like a key, or a ring.”

I follow his instructions, and am left with a piece of the amber coloured solid embedded in a key.

“Now, take all the mana out of it.”

I frown, but oblige, and am left with a dull brown piece of stone.

Gairy takes the key, and pumps a small quantity of mana into it, and it changes colours into a maroon sort of coloring. He pushes the key against the amber coloured gate, and it seems to melt slowly around him until he slips right through, As he pushes through the little piece of amber leaves the key, and rejoins the amber colored gate.

“Basically when you take the mana from it, it's just a rock, and it can't go through, but when they add their mana, it allows it to rejoin, and since it is using that persons mana, they think that that person is also part of them, so they allow that person to rejoin as well, but since that person, isn't a piece of solidified mana, they can't rejoin, and they just slip right through..”

“How are they going to get back through?”

He pauses. “Oh… You could do a couple of things, you could make a separate way back through, or you could add a little booth! Just a booth, where a goblin sits on the other side, and when someone asks to go back through, they can get a little piece like that!”

I shake my head, “No. I have a plan.”

I put a tank full of the little small things inside the wall, and I put a handle, when you pump the handle, it turns a wheel with just enough space for one key, and it drops in, and drops the key down. That way they can go back through.

I also put up a sign, explaining the whole thing.

“By the way, I don't like people having to go back through the boss rooms to leave, because there's only one boss, and I don't want to ruin things for people, so I'm going to make a side hallway, with this same system only allowing people to go one way.”

Gairy shrugs. “Ok.”