The door to the lair splintered as the wood bar locking it fractured in half. Another echoing slam sent the door tumbling to the ground in pieces. Two dusty white claws of pure bone gripped the edges of the doorway and hauled itself into the room. There wasn't a speck of muscle or flesh on the abomination that towered above us, its height even taller than the hobgoblins, although it didn't lessen its strength it must've had in life at all.

Two wooden arrows were struck in between its ribs and the wooden block lodged in its collarbone, a testament at how useless my beginning traps were. Red fire burned in its skull's eye sockets that flared when it roared. How did a dead thing even make sound?

Chion gripped his new , a matching one held by Snep next to him, as they flanked the thing on its sides. Their role was to deal whatever wounds you could even do to a creature like this. DId you break its bones until it stopped moving? Nobody knew and we were down Trald who had been the first to die. It was just his luck he was outside-watching in the entrance room when the thing came lumbering in.

Two of my still classless kobolds, of whom I pitied because they truly were training hard to try and get one, stood side by side in front of it with the wooden swords from the training room. They weren't looking to try and hurt it but instead use the swords to block and try to survive beyond the first hit.

The last two were near me in the back with bows, again from the training room which I was beginning to think doubled as some sort of armory, were shooting it with arrows. As huge a target was the abomination was, it was also a skeleton and those arrows did little or missed entirely.

It was mindless, angry, or both as it swung its claw in a wide sweep at the sword kobolds. For all its weird dead strength it was slow and clumsy. Chion and Snep didn't hesitate to take advantage of that fact. "[[Stab]]!"

Chion drove his dagger through one of the leg bones, cracking it and sending splinters flying. Snep's own [Stab] was far less powerful, merely chipping the other leg. A tripwire sprouted between the legs, but even damaged the abomination's strength cut through it without resistance.

Its claw struck the first kobold who blocked it with the sword, but didn't have anything else to stop it from slamming him into his nearby ally and sending both flying across the room. They smashed into the wall next to me, plopped wetly to the ground, but were barely still alive.

An arrow soared into an eye socket and the creature let out a howl and tried to claw at its face. Good, let it be distracted as my dagger kobolds chipped away at its legs more. The sooner we unbalanced it the quicker it would end. I turned to the two near-dead kobolds and inhaled.

"[Healing Breath]." It was like something thick and wispy was forming inside my mouth and throat, leaking out between my fangs. The mana inside me drained a little bit, somewhere around ten points if I guessed right, as I halfway-spit, halfway-breathed out the weird substance. It was fairly pleasant despite my descriptions.

It flowed over the kobolds, the white wispy smoke flowing into their wounds and sealing them shut. I didn't know the exacts of my perk [Draconic Ancestry], but this skill it gave was incredibly useful. I had never used it before but the thought at being able to heal multiple things like this was incredible. I could heal myself with it too! Unfortunately it wasn't powerful at level one, but it was enough to fully heal my dumb minions.

A leg broke into pieces, the one Chion was working on, which sent the monster down to a knee. It had gotten the arrow out of its eye and turned on those who had injured it. More arrows missed its head or bounced off bone, a good effort from my minions since they hit a hard target at least half the time!

Its claw swung around to rend Chion. He ducked and rolled under the swipe, but unfortunately Snep wasn't as agile. Her sneakiness didn't appear to be working on this monster, maybe because it didn't have normal sight? Its claw shredded off her legs and threw her away from me.

Well, she wasn't getting healed. "Go!" I ordered my sword kobolds who glanced between me and the abomination. They bravely nodded at each other and charged the abomination before being torn to pieces by its other claw. It was enough to let Chion climb onto its back, tap its claw, then leap onto its head.

A grass rope formed around the wrist and tethered itself to the wall nearby. Was that a new skill or something unlocked by [Simple Trap]? Did some skills grant multiple abilities!? I made sure to question him after the battle for an answer. Snep, surprisingly, wasn't dead yet. She threw her daggers, both iron and wood, with far more accuracy than my poor archer kobolds. They pegged the abomination in each of its eyes distracting it for Chion.

"[Stab], [Stab]!" With the force of his skill he severed its spine at the neck and sent its head to the floor. Whew, it finally died.

A flailing foot smushed Snep as it fell into the fire pit. Chion was sent flying off and landed at a bad angle across the room. Okay, so it didn't die after losing its head, it just went wild and couldn't see. Go in and finish it? No, no, a wild swing could rip apart a peaceful kobold like me.

"Shoot it until it stops," I told the archer kobolds. They were decidedly calmer than everyone else, maybe because they enjoyed not having to be close to the monster. Fifteen arrows later it stopped with such suddenness that it unnerved me. The tingling in my scales slowly died down as the went quiet.

I walked up and kicked the dumb hulk of bones. What even was it? "Who's still alive?"

Chion croaked out, "Still here."

"Master, I still alive. Also got class!" yelled one of my archers.

"Me too!" cheered the other.

Finally, maybe that meant that my other ones would also get their class. "What class did you get?"

""[Hunter]!"" They stared at each other and hugged one another. This was coming from two of the bigger kobolds who I tried to teach [Claw Techniques] to, one being the one who looked down on me because I was small. Didn't they seem too different now?

"I got skill [Pierce] and [Sense Presence]," said one. Hmm, since they got classes that would mean I needed to name them, right? Yet, I didn't really want to. When I thought of all the monsters that were going to be in my dungeon, and thinking up a name for every one that got a class, which should be all of them, made me clutch my head.

"Me too! [Pierce]," said the other as he pulled back his bow and sent an arrow flying. The arrow spun unnaturally and flew faster than it should have. We all watched it smack the ceiling and shatter into pieces. "Good skill!"

I clacked my fangs and went over to Chion. "When did you learn that new trap?"

He rubbed his legs, one bent in a bad angle, and I wanted an answer sooner so I used [Healing Breath] on him. He deserved it anyway for doing the most work. He smiled and stretched his leg. "Is still [Simple Trap], but new use when hit level four."

"...How is your skill already that high? Wait just a second," I ran to grab the core, sprinting past the playful foxes, and brought it back to the lair. When I checked Chion's status he was already level four, the same as me! His stats overall were far worse than my own, but he had really high dexterity and intelligence? No, no way. My minion couldn't possibly be this smart.

He smiled and shrugged at me, knowing full well what I was thinking, so I kicked him in the side. "Oof, Master, you never asked!"

"I'm asking right now! It's important to know skills can have new abilities and not just become more powerful," I hissed.

"But your dungeon skill gave new options. Master said let have magic stuff," complained Chion as he rubbed his side. I didn't even kick him that hard and he even had [Tough Scales]! Why this lazy minion...

He was right. Why was I so dumb!? I flailed on the floor and rolled around as the massive skeleton faded and was absorbed by the dungeon. I needed a list of skills, or to create one myself so I could figure out really good skills and bad skills. [Pierce], now that we knew could be used for bows and blades, was an incredible skill. Mudthorn, that dirty goblin, must've already knew it when she said it was a very, very good skill.

I hoped my last two kobolds got good classes, otherwise I was going to force them to try and be a [Hunter]. I didn't see anything in my lists that explained what that bone creature was, however all my bone items now cost one mana less than usual.

The core sat in my lap smugly mocking the fact I didn't know this crucial information. Why was information so difficult, and why did everything strike in the middle of the night or at dawn? Sometimes I wanted to be like Chion and sleep a little bit longer. The dungeon's mana was near max and mine around thirty, my [Healing Breath] had taken eight points to use each time.

These fights where I had to watch over or even participate were becoming more dangerous. Bigger and more terrible enemies were appearing, and I needed my biggest defense my dungeon could give me.

I hovered over the option and tried to use it, but it still gave me the message that I didn't meet requirements. What were these requirements? I wanted my boss monster to hide behind! Fine, more minions would have to do it instead. I bought two more grass nests, our lair barely big enough to have all these nests around the fire pit, but ignored that fact. Most of the time we kobolds were spread about except for during Delves.

Come out two more kobolds! White light formed into the usual taller-than-me kobolds, male and female, with their unfocused eyes and jerky movements of just being born. I assigned them to their nests so they were permanent parts of my dungeon and pawned them off onto Chion.

"Trald better hurry back," muttered Chion as I instead focused on the new notification on the core.

"Master, you scaring new ones," said Chion with a nervous tone. I pulled down my cheeks to hide my wide grin and carried the core off to the empty north room. My skill leveled up, finally it became level three, and I was praying to the dungeon that it gave me more information. Descriptions, items, options, anything at all that would help me understand what I needed to do. I was struggling since every other day I was being limited or finding out stuff I wanted to know from the start.

The bone monster didn't give me a spirit point despite being stronger than the hobgoblins. Why was that? How did rooms increase my minion limit? I went to the list and held a claw on a room. The description hadn't changed at all but I did get more kinds of rooms besides square or round rooms, such as rectangular and hexagonal rooms.

I froze. Wasn't that incredibly bad? I clutched my horns and resisted a yell of frustration. So I had summoned all my allowed minions and I couldn't create more rooms to allow for more minions. Then what about my boss? Did a boss room and the boss monster count against the creature limit?

I went back to the option and stared at it hard wanting it to reveal its secrets to me. My skill had leveled up, surely that did something? I held a claw on it and got the same message back about requirements. I yelled and slammed a fist down on the core! What was I supposed to do?

A list opened.

I took a deep breath and stared at the cube, the dungeon core, and waved away the list to go back

>Upgrade Rooms

>Designate Boss Room

>Assign Creatures

Normally to go into lists or buy or use something I had to hold a claw on the option for a moment. Tapping on it had done nothing. Yet... I tapped on .

The final room of a floor that creates a creature based on several factors such as room and creature type, average item and treasure chest quality, and floor theme.

>Requirements needed

>1 / 1 Core Room

>3 / 3 Upgraded Rooms

>15 / 8 Creatures

>1 / 3 Treasure Chests

>Can only designate an empty room

If I could hug my [Dungeon Interface] skill I would've. Tapping on things now granted more detailed information! To get that as well as more available things to buy in lists all from a single skill level? Amazing, great, wonderful. Maybe now I could start figuring out what in the unnamed dungeon I should be doing as its [Dungeon Master]!

But to think I needed to put out treasure chests to create a boss room. I tilted my head back and forth as I stared at that requirement. I vaguely understood it, something inside my head was telling me it was part of my purpose, part of what made a dungeon a [Dungeon], but I couldn't honestly say I liked it. Just the single chest in my entrance room had caused me headaches.

The part about the boss depending on various factors made me uneasy. I didn't get to choose my own ? Did it work only at the creation of the room or did it grow as I develop the floor? The requirements, if I counted right, needed half the limit of creatures and rooms before I could make one. All this thinking was tiring me out, but it came down to that I needed to put two more treasure chests somewhere.

The obvious choice would be one in the fox den and the other in the training room. With all the kobolds and nests in the lair there wasn't room for one, and I made sure to make any future rooms all big ones. Better bigger than smaller!

A chest containing treasure that depends on the quality of chest and the room it is placed in. Can be opened once per delve.

>Wood Chest - 10 MP

>Bone Chest - 19 MP

>Stone Chest - 25 MP

>Tribal Chest - 30 MP

>Rosestone Chest - 50 MP

>Crude Iron Chest - 60 MP

Do... do I save for one of the really expensive chests? It said that my boss depended on it, but that would also mean letting any invader that reached it get a treasure worth from that chest to maybe use against my boss creature, or even me. From the treasure that came from a basic putting any of the better chests in one of my upgraded rooms meant that any treasure would be really good!

I wanted it, but also wanted to spite invaders and put wood chests everywhere, but that would weaken... Why did this have to be so hard?

Chion poked his head into the room and walked over to me. "Something wrong, Master?"

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"Hard decisions, my chief minion, very hard decisions," I muttered. He looked over my shoulder at the core and its lists, but I knew he couldn't read them. "To get a I need to put treasure chests in the dungeon."

Chion snorted and said, "Put bad chests if reason."

"Obviously," I shot back. "But the better the chests are the more powerful my will be. It also counts how good my rooms and minions are, even our equipment!"

"Master, remember I said dungeon make it fair? When chest open with every new enemy, but we also revive. This make fair for invader, but also for dungeon. Better treasure, stronger boss, better minions, better treasure. Is like circle."

I softly kicked him in the leg. "Quit being smart and go be my laziest minion."

Chion chuckled. "Then give your fur blanket."

Fur blanket? Oh, one of the treasures the goblins had gotten. I waved a claw and shooed him away. "Yes, sure, go take it from my nest, but not the shiny rock!" It wasn't that I liked the shiny rock, but I hadn't figured out what it was yet. It was a rock, and shiny, but what mysteries did it hide? Definitely not because it looked pretty in the fire light.

He scampered off with a smile having achieved his original goal and I thought on what Chion said. A circle, or cycle, of the way the dungeon worked. It was usually in my favor but at times like this I didn't enjoy it. Was I going to weaken my first floor because I didn't want every invader having a chance at my best treasure chests? It was hard to look toward the future when this single floor was my entire world right now.

It was my entire life.

I gave up. Sure, it was a dramatic choice that I could internally debate about, but in the end treasure involved Luck, an actual stat, and to even get the chests they would have to tear through my entire floor. If the boss was stronger because of something as simple as spending more mana on chests, as well as upgrading all the rooms, and ended up killing any invaders then that treasure would just be mine.

Now it was the decision between sixty mana for the iron chest or fifty mana for the rosestone chest. What was the difference? My newly leveled skill could answer that!

A decorative treasure chest made of a stone with a gem-like appearance found in the Rosestone Swamp. Has an increased chance of dropping stone and lower quality items decorated with rosestone.

A sturdy treasure chest crudely forged and eroded by nature. Has an increased chance of dropping armor and weaponry made of very low quality iron.

I hugged the cube-core while kicking my legs. I loved my skill's new ability so much because it was telling me things at last. The dungeon was incredibly vague about so much. Now, the choice between chests was still difficult to decide on. One gave any item that was more pretty and usually stone while the other focused on equipment that was actually made of metal, no matter how poor.

Since I could just get my minions equipment I went with the as my main choice. Rooms affected the treasure too, right? The fox den and training room were my final choices since the was in the entrance room and there was no room in the lair. That reminded me that I needed to upgrade the entrance room somehow because it would improve my boss.

Using a spirit point on it wasn't necessary since I didn't have any minions assigned there. Looking in was all my current rooms, a hobgoblin room, and now something called a that let any minions that died in there come back as undead of the same level they were. Hahaha, more abominations for two spirit points? I ignored that awful option.

Speaking of spirit points, even better information barely gave me anything on them.

Energy gathered by the dungeon from those with powerful souls.

So far I had gained spirits from hobgoblins and scary adult foxes, each above my own level at my guess, so I got more spirits the higher level and more dangerous the foe. Of course, that is, if they had a soul. That was why the abomination earlier didn't give any.

I had been thinking and toying with the interface for a really long time and my mana had recovered in full. With this new level up it didn't cost any mana at all to browse the interface! I thought it just leveled up by using the skill a lot from browsing, but actually summoning and changing things using it probably helped a lot more. [Dungeon Interface Lv.4] was so far away but I was already giddy from wanting to get it.

"Master?" asked Chion as I walked through the lair. Most of my minions had revived by now, only the two sword kobolds were still gone, and Snep was nowhere in sight. I swore I would get a skill just to find her sneaky tail if only to spite her.

"Ignore me," I said and went into the training room. Trald was in here practicing his archery, his skill letting him know the basics. It was hard for him because he said [Basic Knowledge] was just that, knowledge without the ability, so it was good for teaching but it failed to let him become skilled without practice.

He watched me walk over to the kobold statue at the wall and create the next to it. It was made entirely of the gem-like stone making it exceedingly pretty to look at, but reasonably sized since anything from something I could hold in my claw to a piece of armor could appear inside. To large folk, at least. I kicked it for being taller than me.

"Wow, that beautiful. Look like statue guarding it," said Trald. Hmm, it did, didn't it?

"This is your room, Trald," I said patting him on the back. "Make sure to keep greedy invaders away from it."

He chewed on his fangs and slightly shook. "T-Thank you, Master. I will do very best!"

It would take five or six more hours to get enough mana for the last treasure chest I needed so I decided to be productive and have Trald train me in some weapons. I still greatly enjoyed the feeling of using my claws but knowing how others fought when using weapons would help me. Not only that, but having Trald train me should help him level his class.

I took a bow and quiver off the shelf, a reminder that I needed to get my new [Hunter] pair their own, and waved to Trald. He had the second set with him, his grin fading, as he glanced at the bow in his claws. I asked, "Show me how?"

He appeared hesitant as he gripped his bow with a claw and took a very straight stance. "Okay? Shoot arrows is tougher than blades. Arrow fly many ways and hard to hit... exact? No, precise."

That was something I already knew, although I let him continue talking. I copied the way he held his bow, claw just below the middle section, and he drew out an arrow. Since our arrows were bone they sharper than wood but also a bit more brittle with fins on the backs to help us hold it with our claws.

"Hold here and place here on string. Claws sharp so careful not to cut string, like that," he said watching me as I copied what he demonstrated. "Little spot here fit on string. Now pull back and release at target."

When Trald pulled back his bow and released the arrow it spun toward the arrow target, but then twisted in the air and thunked against the wall. He stood still, lowered his bow, took a breath, and turned toward me. "Try?"

Hmm, holding an arrow like this was easy enough, the fins of bone really helping my far sharper claws keep my grip, as I fit the arrow on the bowstring. When I pulled back to aim at the target I snapped the string with ease. "Whoops, too much strength."

"Go slow, feel when string very tight, then let go," said Trald as he shot another arrow. That one missed the target as well.

Thankfully the dungeon enjoyed keeping things neat and proper when we weren't under attack so the bow repaired itself in a minute. I nocked the arrow again, pulled to just when I felt that maybe the string would snap, and let go. The arrow flew twice as fast as Trald's did and stuck itself in the very outer edge of the target.

"Kekeke, I actually hit it." I nocked another arrow, slowly going through the motions of correcting the my grip of both the bow and arrow so I didn't break anything, and let loose another arrow. This one sunk into the opposite outer ring, still not even close to where I was aiming, but it made me feel good that I could hit the target.

"G-Good shot, Master," said Trald with slight frown. Ah, I eyed his two missed arrows and set the bow back on the shelf. Maybe not archery then?

"Bow and arrows aren't my thing. It doesn't have the feeling I want," I explained. "It's why I like my claws, but I was just thinking about how enemies won't use claws only. It's good to know how to use weapons so I can know how to fight against them."

Trald set his own bow and quiver on the ground where he was and followed me over to the shelf. I picked up a wood sword and tested its handle. "You know how to use a sword?"

"Little, skill show enough to use right way, but..." He picked up the bone sword, it having found its way in here for whatever reason. The way he held it looked different from mine and he changed the way he stood the moment he picked up the weapon. It was completely different than how he stood when using the bow.

"Show me. Attack," I said and moved to the middle of the room.

"Master!? I couldn't, mean, attacking you?" He backed up and was about to put the sword back when I hissed at him. Trald stopped, then hesitantly joined me in the middle of the room. "Is useless."

I held up the sword waiting for his strike, knowing that he and I were holding and standing completely differently. I tried to mimic Trald but it was uncomfortable. "It's not useless, just attack. Fast or slow, show me how an enemy with sword would strike."

Trald slowly stepped forward and swung from the side. It was very slow with no intent or strength behind it. I smacked the sword so hard it fell out of his claw. "Faster."

He picked up the sword and did the same swing but slightly faster. I held my sword out to block but he pulled back before he hit. I hissed and slammed my sword into his, cracking both wood and bone and sending it to the floor. "I asked you to train me, show me, but you do this."

"I can't show anything." Trald tenderly grabbed the sword off the ground. "Skill shows me how, tells me how, but doing it so hard. Attacking Master useless. You already better than me without training."

This is why dumb minions are so troublesome. I snapped my claws and waved the sword around. "Yes, I'm stronger. Beating me in a fight? Kekeke, I'm the strongest in dungeon, but I have no idea how to fight with this. Swinging hard? Am I a dumb goblin?"

"No," muttered Trald. "But knowing doesn't make me good at training. Being [Trainer] doesn't make me stronger! Early I got crushed easy by bone thing. So easy, and after death I watch how useless I am over and over."

This was the first time I was hearing about how it was after a dungeon minion died. Was that what went on? That they had to relive or experience their defeat many times over? That sounded... useful. Cruel or harsh, maybe, but it would be something I would gladly take advantage of if I could. Of course, I had no intention of ever dying.

"Come back and hear everyone do good. Cas and Ras get class, Chion and Snep beat bone thing, they get strong." He stared at the over by the kobold statue. "[Trainer] still weak even after level up. Can't even hit target with arrows."

Did Chion name those two or did they name each other? "And?"

He whirled on me and held the sword tightly. "Can I change class? Get stronger class? I want to fight!"

"And you can't fight as a [Trainer]?"

Trald grit his fangs and barked, "No! Is weak class, dumb class. What is good skill? No skill is good! Can't beat fox cub alone, let alone goblin or strong monster. Chion said you gave him class. Can you give me stronger one?"

"No," I stated.

He yelled wordlessly and charged me, swinging the sword with all his strength. I waved my own sword into his, knocking him off balance, and caught him by the throat with my open claw. "Weak. That was pathetic, Trald."

I tossed him to the floor, him rubbing his throat as he glared at me. "Of course weak! That—”

He shut up when I kicked him, softly enough to not hurt my dumb minion, and pointed at his sword. "I meant that swing. Your first two were good, far better. Kekeke, you think your skills, your class is weak? Why, because you don't have high strength or dexterity for using weapons?

"You get to know how to use anything you touch, even if it's only a little knowledge. [Posture] has changed the way you walk and stand! They're skills to let you learn and train others, but especially yourself." I tried to mimic his earlier swings but knew I had poor form.

Tears welled up and flowed down his cheeks. Ah, I made my minion cry. "I want to be strong fast, like you. When you said protect treasure, I..."

I patted my poor minion on the head and helped him up. "You are a [Trainer] with very good skills. You are strong, and you will make others stronger. While they will level and grow by fighting, you will by doing what your class is meant to. So you have to practice a lot and teach yourself! It's not just weapons, you dumb kobold!"

Confusion was plain on his face so I grabbed that face and turned it to the table. "The game."

"Oh," he said.

"Yes, oh. You can learn anything, yes? All those minions are stuck to their classes. Snep is sneaky, Chion is lazy—”

"But he’s [Trapper]."

"—Those two others will use bows, but you can learn to do it all. It only takes you a lot more time. If you want something to learn then ask me." I ran a claw over my horns and stretched my body. "Now quit crying and show me how to an enemy uses a sword. Then we'll go to daggers and knives. You think I'm training to fight because I magically know how? Practice is hard, Trald, but it makes you stronger."

He stood up, wiped his face clumsily with his claws, and picked up his bone sword. "...Sorry."

First Chion, then Snep, and now Trald. If my minions kept having dramatic issues I was going to need to assign a minion to specially handle them. I was a [Dungeon Master] and all I wanted to do was make my dungeon and hide behind it all. Did other dungeons have these issues?

He took a stance like he did before and when I was ready swung at me. It didn't have the power behind it that a true enemy would have due to Trald's low stats, but the strike was smooth and clean when I blocked it with my sword. I grinned and pushed his sword off mine. "That was very good."

Trald stared wide-eyed at me. "I, uh, leveled."

He flinched when I smiled widely. "Kekeke, I told you so. Now let's continue."

"Master," said Trald as he glanced from the statue, the chest, to me and then at his own claws. "Thank you."

I sighed. Dumb minions.