Huh, that… was not entirely expected.

I definitely thought that my monstrous cane toads would be at least a bit tougher, but at the end of the day they are still just toads.

But they did manage to do a bit of damage when they ganged up on the intruders and had the assistance of distractions. An idea for another time.

No, what is much more interesting is the effect my asbestos had. Or rather, my enhanced asbestos.

As far as I know, then normally it isn’t anywhere near that fast. Back on Earth it would take years of directly working with asbestos and even then, it could take decades to develop symptoms. But not here.

It would seem that whatever magic my dungeon reinforcement does, it makes my materials much more powerful. Except that that isn’t the whole truth. After all, it was only one of those people that got affected. As for the others. I have no idea whether it’s acting at the more normal speed or if they got affected at all.

It sure would help if I was able to understand them. At the end there it seemed like they were talking about something relevant to this, with how they suddenly retreated in a panic.

Questions, questions, so many questions. And yet, so few answers.

Either way, it would seem that I have some more time again. It’s time to do some more work on my dungeon. All I have to do is figure out how to proceed.

I did some thinking over the few days between me having finished and the adventurers arriving. And I think I really have only three options. Well, two, but the second one has two possible paths right now.

My frogs. It’s rather obvious after this first invasion that they are much too weak. So, I could dedicate some time into improving them. Thanks to them being imprinted onto my core, it’ll be a much faster, easier and cheaper process. But even then, I doubt I can do much in just a day or two.

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

The other option is for me to alter the environment of my dungeon to better suit my monsters. Like the distractions I mentioned earlier. For this, two idea come to mind.

I could work on some kind of bog or marsh environment to better suit my toads. I think that’s the sort of place they are at home. And even if it isn’t like that on Earth, it’s rather obvious at this point that these cane toads are at most tangentially similar to those.

The other option, well, I feel like this one’s better. But I also feel like I’m biased here. And, if that weren’t enough, this option would also require me to use another of my limited imprinting slots.

Hmm, yeah, no. I don’t care. A new monster it is. A plant monster, to be exact. Besides, it isn’t like I won’t be doing the other things too. This is just deciding the order of operations.

With that decided, I once again call out to magic. Or whatever it is I’m doing when initiating these monster creations.

The magic, the mystical energies, once again begin to gather near my core. I’m slowly getting used to the sensation, but there’s something more to it. I’ll have to examine that once I’m a bit safer.

Anyway, I begin to push images onto the forming blob of energy. A vine like plant that grows over everything and spreads everywhere. That smothers the life out of things it overtakes. Hmm, and actually, let me also add some poison from poison ivy. Normally, it doesn’t have any, but I think I can do some fun stuff with that later.

Finally, the process is done and on the ground before me lies the infamous kudzu vine. Yet another invasive plant. But that is for the future.

For now, I need to spread it through my cave. Hopefully it’ll provide adequate camouflage for my toads. And maybe it’ll even be a tripping hazard for future invaders.

There’s just one tiny problem. There’s neither food, water nor sunlight down here. When I only had a couple dozens frogs it was fine. And even now, covered in vines as I am, I’m able to sustain my creatures fully on just magic. Or mana, or whatever it is I’m using as a dungeon. No time to examine all that just yet.

But that won’t remain like that forever. At some point, I’ll grow too big. At that point, I’ll have to create an actual ecosystem.

Anyway, all that took me the vast majority of the day. I expect this team to give delving me another try tomorrow, so it’s best if I don’t start any bigger changes.

What I can do with this remaining time is try to do some minor shifts in the two monsters I have. Mostly just colourations, so that they blend in better with each other. Also, I’ll try to change the behaviour of my not-cane toads. Just shooting their tongue is much too stupid.