A little over a week had passed since the intrusion of the hunter, and I had been busy. All nine wolves had been leveled up to their maximum levels, making them all scary fast and strong. They were now also all eligible for evolution, but I was hesitating. For one, evolving all nine of them would be extremely expensive. I had so many other things to do that I wasn't sure that spending all that mana in one place was a good idea.

Buddy had also reached maximum level, granting him the possibility to evolve as well as being upgraded to something called a scion. Again, I didn't want to blow through all my mana at once, so I decided to hold off. I also wanted to learn a bit more about the different options.

I had made a couple more golems too. Barney, Wilma and Betty joined Fred patrolling the perimeter, while Pebbles and Bam-Bam manned the clinic. The clinic had also been upgraded to an actual clinic, granting extra health to all my denizens, as well as increased health regeneration while inside of the clinic. Nifty!

My four patrolling golems were also equipped with simple slingshots and a pouch of small fire gems. Their aim was absolute garbage, but I figured they would scare the shit out of anyone they fired at. I had given them very simple orders. Number one, patrol the outside of the compound. Number two, engage intruders only if they get too close to the core shack, or if they attack any of the residents or denizens. Number three, if the intruders disengage and run away, do not pursue. Number four, if the intruders do not back down, do what you have to to protect the dungeon and its inhabitants. Hopefully that wouldn't be too complicated for them, but only time would tell.

There was now also a small garden around the back of the core shack. There was nothing growing in it at the moment since I hadn't consumed anything to grow yet. I had even made a nice wooden fence with stone pillars going around the plot.

Squirrel seemed to have made a few new friends. We now had four of the little fluff balls running around all over the place. Only two of the new ones had asked to become residents, which I accepted of course. The last one seemed to have a home somewhere in the forest. He just liked hanging out in the giant tree with his buddies.

As far as defenses went, I was having a hard time thinking of anything that wouldn't cause too much harm. I really didn't want to kill anyone, but I had to keep my people safe. A few camouflaged pitfalls could work, without any sharp spikes on the bottom of course. Maybe I could do some net traps among the trees as well. Yes, I would most definitely do that.

A few new upgrades had been made available for the dungeon itself too. I had been given the option to expand, which I did find very exciting. I was still unsure about where exactly to expand to, but going down deeper underground was certainly an intriguing option. It would make the place into a somewhat proper dungeon.

For the moment, however, I was tossing and turning about what to do with Buddy. I had asked him if he would want to evolve, or if he wanted his scion upgrade, but he just stared at me as if I was crazy. In the end, I just couldn't decide. Bob was absolutely no help either. He explained the options to me, but refused to give an opinion towards either option.

In the end I decided to go for the scion option. I called Buddy over to the core shack and tried to explain what was going to happen. A task made all the more difficult since I really had no idea myself. In the end, I ended up just taking a deep breath and poking the scion option.

"Here goes nothing…" I mumbled to myself.

A bright green light started swirling around Bubby, completely obscuring the large wolf from view. After a few minutes it was so bright that I could barely look at it. A few minutes passed before the light suddenly dimmed, then disappeared, revealing a slightly larger Buddy standing there as if nothing had happened.

"Greetings father Bro." A deep, growling voice came rumbling out of my previously silent friend. "I thank you for granting me this opportunity. I shall serve in any way I can."

"Buddy?" I couldn't believe the change, even though I knew it would happen. "How are you feeling?"

Buddy stretched his limbs, then his neck and lastly his back. "I feel… alive, father."

I couldn't help smiling. It was so weird having a talking wolf standing right in front of you, especially one so large. Buddy had grown to roughly the size of a Great Dane now. Checking his upgrade menu I saw that his evolution option was still there. I glanced at my mana. Apparently, upgrading Buddy into a scion hadn't cost me anything. Well, that was awesome.

"Hold on to your tail, Buddy!" I exclaimed and poked the evolution option as well.

The procedure from a few minutes ago repeated. Bright light, dim light, a huge wolf appears. In fact, huge didn't come close to describing the guy. Buddy was now roughly the size of a small horse. I had serious doubts that he would be able to fit inside the wolf dens anymore. I expressed this concern to him, making him pause and think for a moment.

"I do believe you are correct, father." That low growling voice had somehow got even more menacing. "I also believe that I no longer count as part of the pack. I am a guardian of the dungeon now, not merely a wolf. They are still under my control, should I wish to exercise it, but I am not their pack leader. I am the general, the pack leaders are the lieutenants, so to speak."

That made sense in a way. Regardless, though, he would need a new place to crash. I flexed my muscles, cracked my knuckles and got to work.

A couple of hours later I was standing in front of a huge rock formation. And when I say huge, I'm talking 'large suburban villa' kind of large. The top of the rocks were flattened, giving Buddy a nice place to lay and chill in the sun and keep an eye on the grounds. Underneath the rock was a burrow large enough to drive a double decker city bus into. I decorated it slightly with some smaller stones, tree roots, patches of grass and a giant leather rug so he could keep the dirt out of his fur if he wanted.

"How is that?" I asked Buddy as I surveyed the outside of my creation.

He was quiet for a moment before looking up at me. I could swear I saw a sparkle of moisture in his big eyes. "This is more than I deserve, father. It is a most marvelous dwelling. Thank you."

I gave him a gentle pat on the head and ruffled his fur. Not that I actually could, but it's the thought that counts; or so I hear. Buddy immediately climbed up the rocks and lay down at his lookout post. I snuck a peek at his stats window and noticed some interesting things. Buddy had three new skills; rend, taunting growl, and frightening growl. I could guess by their names what they did, so I moved on. It also seemed like he had earned himself a title. I had the choice between three different ones currently. The first was 'Guardian', earned as he ran out to save his pack mate from the hunters. The second title was 'The night terror', and was apparently earned for scaring the enemy into flight, at night. Third and last was 'General of the pack', and was a reward for being upgraded to scion. It was a tough choice, but in the end I went with 'General of the pack', simply because I thought it was the best fit.

Next I had a look at the two wolf dens. I could either upgrade them both individually to hold more wolves, and to spawn them automatically, or it seemed I could combine the two dens into a 'wolf community' that would allow me up to 50 wolves at maximum level. It wasn't really a difficult decision. I poked the combination button and watched as new tree stumps popped up in the area. I could also feel tunnels being made to connect all the different dens that were now scattered around the area. When that was done I spent the very last of my available mana to give the place an actual spawner. That would save me a lot of headache in the future, not having to manually spawn them in.

With all my mana used up, I decided to go have a lay down in my comfy bed. The last thing I did was to ask 'The Flintstones', as I called my golems, to head out and explore a bit towards the mountains, and bring back whatever materials they could find. I was quietly dreading another load of branches and pebbles, but mana was mana I supposed. Sure, I would prefer to get some new materials, but even if they just brought old stuff and filled my mana up, I'd be happy.

Even though I couldn't actually sleep, just laying there, imagining myself in the soft mattress and blanket, I felt much better. The mana regeneration increased slightly and just having some quiet time was really nice. Since I couldn't drift off to sleep, however, my mind wouldn't shut off. I was thinking about new things I could make for the dungeon, things I could improve and what kind of things I would need to keep everyone safe.

I started by creating a basic, hand drawn cart. It was basically just a wooden box with two wheels and a long handle in the front that the golems could grab onto and pull. It wasn't the most beautiful cart in the world, but it should do the job. I placed two of them next to the still empty garden.

Once I had created my first vehicle, I decided to try my hand at some other modernities. The first thing I figured I would try was an oven. To have use of an oven, you needed a kitchen. Pondering for a moment if I should make a new shack for it, I decided against that. I was low enough on mana at the moment.

"Bob?" I didn't know if he was always around or if he was off doing his own thing.

"How can I help you, Bro?" I swear I heard a snicker every time he used my name.

"Can I add an extension to this shack?"

He hesitated for only a second. "It would appear that you can, yes. It does cost some mana, but not as much as making a whole new building."

Perfect! I opened the menu and saw that there now was an option for an extension, and for only five mana. That was a steal! I immediately poked the option and the whole shack vibrated and rumbled for a second. Looking over at the northern wall, there was now a door leading into another room.

Spending a few lazy hours in, or rather floating above, my bed, I managed to create a stove, an oven, a blender, a grater and a whole bunch of other kitchen appliances. It all ran on mana and magic, of course, but I was rather pleased with my ingenuity. I would have to wait until I got some kind of cold or frost magic thingy before I could make a fridge and freezer though. But that would come soon enough. I didn't really need any of this at the moment anyway.

*****

Two days later, The Flintstones finally returned. I didn't know what took them that long, but I supposed they weren't really any kind of speed demons. They were carrying all manner of stuff though, so that was good. Fred led them to just outside the core shack and they all proceeded to unceremoniously drop everything they were holding on the ground. I suddenly felt light headed as my mana shot through the roof.

"New material added: Rainbow scaled trout. A large freshwater fish whose scales shimmer in the sun. The meat is good to eat and the scales can be used for crafting."

"New animal added: Rainbow scaled trout has been added as a spawnable option in any larger body of water"

"New material added: tin. A soft malleable metal that is very resistant to corrosion. Good for protecting other metals against corrosion. Too weak to be used for most types of construction."

"New material added: coal. Naturally formed porous rock formed mostly out of carbon. Very flammable."

"New material added: Iron. Hard, sturdy metal very suitable for building and reinforcing other materials. Has low electrical conductivity."

"New material added: mountain goat antler. Very hard, bonelike material. Can be shaped and sharpened into all manner of pointy or

That was a lot. Maybe not a lot of new materials, but more than enough to keep me busy for a while at least. I wasn't exactly sure what I would use the coal for, since I could use the magic fire gem to make fire. Maybe coal would be better for more sustained fire though. Time would have to tell. Experiments would have to be made.

The first thing I made with the rainbow scales was a scarf for Buddy. He eyed it suspiciously when I first presented it to him, but once he put it on, and it turned all of his fur into one big fluffy rainbow cloud, he refused to take it off. Well that was an interesting and unexpected effect. I was sure I could come up with some cool uses for that given some time.

My focus then turned to my pond. There was now a new option available. "Turn the area into 'fishing pond': 10 mana." I wasn't sure I wanted to turn my lovely little beach setting into a fishing space, but then again, what did I have to lose? I spent the mana and the only visible change was some very pretty fish in the water.

The rest I would let be for now. I had gotten an idea. Sure, it was a stupid idea, but those were always my favourite kind of ideas. With all the stuff that the golems had brought back my mana was overflowing. I needed to build things now if I didn't want the excess to go to waste.

I started off by making a few more buildings surrounding the core shack. I would leave them empty for now, they were more set dressing than anything really useful at the moment. Then I started excavating a path, roughly four meters wide, that ran from the western border of my domain to the eastern border. I made sure that it ran past every building I had made, as well as through the squirrel tree. Once that was done, I filled it with rock in the shape of cobblestone, with a couple of blocks of flint scattered here and there just to add some colour. Once the road was finished I added tall stone guard towers at each border. The towers were unmanned for now, but all sported a big ballista on the top, loaded with fire gem tipped bolts. That should scare off the more faint of heart.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Along the road I also set up some temporary, rudimentary streetlights. Nothing fancy, just a steel pole with a mana infused lump of coal on top. That should, hopefully, keep them burning for a while.

After almost a full day I had the start of a quaint little village. There was a main street going through with buildings for potential businesses, there were dirt roads and alleys leading to residential houses. I even made, and furnished, a police station where I stationed all of the patrolling golems; there was even a tiny jail in the basement. The clinic was already built, of course, so all that was missing was a fire station. I placed it on the outskirts of my little village, closest to the pond, and gave it a large water tower, made of steel and iron, and coated with tin on the inside. I made an almost horse shaped golem and attached it to a larger wooden cart. I made a steel tank to go in the cart, filled it with water and created a small water gem by combining a fire gem with mana infused water. It should, in theory, keep creating water until the space it was in got full. After that, once the container was opened, it should provide enough water pressure to send water flying through the leather hoses. Lastly, I made two larger golems, named Titan and Colossus, to act as the village fire fighters. I gave them the command that if any fire broke out within the domain, they were to take the fire cart to the location and use the water hoses to douse the fire. Simple enough, right? Well, not so much. They immediately rushed off and started putting out my street lamps. Well, shit. It took me another good few hours to figure out how exactly to word the instructions so that they didn't drench the whole town as soon as someone lit a cigarette.

All said and done, I was quite pleased with my little settlement. Though I admit, it would be a lot nicer with some actual people around. The golems were fine as government employees, but as companions they did leave some things to desire. I had no real idea how to go about getting people in here, but I was sure I'd think of something.

*****

Having done what I could with the above ground for the moment, I decided to expand down. To prepare for this move, I upgraded my basement into a rat's nest. It sounds gross, I know, but I needed something down there and I was not about to infest my basement with fucking spiders.

Making the upgrade spawned a single rat in the middle of the room. It looked around, seeming a little confused at first, and then ran off. A few minutes later I saw it emerge from a hole in the wall, followed by three other, much smaller rats. The big rat, I decided to call him Splinter, started digging another hole in another wall, while the little ratlings started building nests. It didn't take very long until the walls looked like swiss cheese and the entire floor was covered in nests and rats. I wasn't sure what I would feed them all, but they seemed to be doing alright for the moment.

Basement settled, I finally felt like I could press the expansion option, so I did. The entire are started to shake so violently, I was afraid that everything above ground would collapse. I tried to think of something to do to stop it, but in the end I just had to ride it out. Once the earthquake had passed, I could see a hole in the ground of my basement, roughly a meter in all directions, with a ladder bolted into the wall going down.

A quick check upstairs told me that no buildings had been damaged. That was a relief and allowed me to focus on exploring my new underground dungeon. Not that there was very much down there yet. All it was, was a chamber of roughly five by five meters and a ceiling height of around the same.

"New level entry room created. Want to move core? Yes or no?"

I hesitated only for a moment before choosing yes. There was a strange feeling of weightlessness as my green orb, now the size of a basketball, floated its way down the stairs and settled onto an altar of flint.

"New core room designated."

I looked at the option for my new room. There wasn't much I could do with the core room itself, but my options for excavation were pretty much endless.

The next couple of days were spent in a blur of activity. My maximum mana doubled as I added a new level to the dungeon, and I was itching to finally make something resembling a proper dungeon. Rooms were dug out and assigned, traps were built, and challenges were set. I had decided that I didn't want to be a murderous dungeon. As much as I felt the need to keep my people safe, I really didn't want to kill anyone; that was never really who I was. Instead I decided that I was going to be a challenge dungeon.

The first room I dug out was a massive rectangle, measuring twenty by ten meters. As soon as I had excavated it, I got another system message.

"New invader discovered: mole. These blind mammals excell at burrowing underground. Because of their lack of eyesight, they have excellent hearing and sense of touch. They are drawn towards the mana of your core."

"New denizen available: snake. Slithering reptile that loves the taste of moles. Though they don't burrow themselves, they are quite adept at using the mole's own tunnels to hunt them down."

I had not seen that coming. A new invader and a new denizen. I supposed I would need the increased mana regeneration with my newly doubled maximum. In any case, I placed down a snake spawner, and a large, rattlesnake looking fellow came out of it. I decided that his name would be Sir Hissalot, or Hiss for short.

"New node discovered: mining-crystal. Crystal added to materials."

"New material added: crystal. Mana rich, transparent rock. Highly sought after by traders and crafters. Can be infused with elemental magic to make magic crystals."

Nodes, huh? I didn't even know that was a thing. Now that I did know, however, I could make pretty good use of them. Checking the information window on my new crystal nodes, I learned that they cost ten mana to place, I could have a maximum of five in the current space, and each node would contain five small pieces of crystal in their basic state. Now this was something I could use to have people come here and do things other than kill my denizens. In fact, if I instructed my people to let anyone pass, as long as they weren't belligerent, aggressive, or just plain rude, I was sure that I could become a decent mining attraction at least. That said though, surely visitors would like at least a little challenge, right?

My plan was really a simple one. I erected floor to ceiling stone walls throughout the room. Not in a maze like way, but just to provide a bit of obscurity to whatever lurked within. Next I took the time to fabricate some glass into something that looked as much like the crystal nodes as I could manage. Placing these glass nodes randomly around the room and infusing each of them with a monster spawn trigger. Doing this was fairly expensive, but with my newfound mana wealth I could handle it. Once the glass was broken, a group of five snakes would spawn. None of them would be venomous, or even particularly strong, but enough of a menace to be annoying. Traps finally set, I distributed the real crystal nodes randomly as well. The final touches were a few dim torches that were attached to the walls, giving off just enough light to almost see by.

"Uhm, Boss?" Bob's voice appeared right next to my ear. "Are you sure you want the entrance to the sub levels going through your core room?"

I hadn't thought about that, but Bob did make a fair point. I didn't know much about how dungeons were supposed to work, but I knew that if my core was destroyed I was dead. Like, for real dead, dead, and that would be bad.

"Do you have any ideas?" I figured that if anyone would know what to do, it would be Bob.

"Well… We could just excavate a long tunnel going up towards the surface somewhere far from the core shack and core room. Make it snake a little in all directions before reaching this place. Maybe even make the entrance to the core room a secret one, hidden behind an invisible door or something?"

I liked all those ideas. "Those are some awesome ideas, Bob. Since you already thought it up, why don't you go ahead and make the tunnels and entrance room?"

Bob was quiet for a long time before he hesitantly spoke. "Are you sure, Bro? I am just the in-system help menu. I am not supposed to do any building or creating on my own."

I smiled at him. "You are whatever you want to be, friend. I am the master of this dungeon, and I say if you want to create, you can create."

Another long, drawn out pause followed. "I will do my best, Boss."

*****

Watching Bob work was quite the surreal experience. I could sense more than see what he was doing. The long tunnel up towards the surface, the large entrance hall, and a small room of some description just off the middle of the tunnel. I could feel the dirt being removed and the ground hollowed out before sight was finally granted section by completed section. I looked into the small side room in the tunnel and could just barely make out something small and vaguely humanoid curled up against one wall. There was a small opening in the wall opposite where my tunnel came through, but I couldn't feel or sense anything inside it.

"Bob." I prodded him gently with my mind once he was done digging. "What is this place?"

"I have no idea." Bob sounded uncertain. "I did not excavate this room. It must have already been here." He went quiet for a second, then added "It seems like there is a stairway down from here, but it's cut off from my senses."

I nodded my agreement as my focus turned towards the figure along the far wall. They hadn't moved since I first saw them. Were they dead? No, they would surely have been consumed as soon as the dungeon was connected to the room if that was the case. But if they were alive, they were surely not in a very good state.

Focusing my attention on the being, trying to open a status window, accomplished nothing. Slowly moving closer, I knelt down next to this strange creature. The first thing I noticed was how small they were, no bigger than a twelve year old child. The way they were laying made it difficult to make out any features, and the darkness in the room did nothing to help. I could see its chest rising and falling slowly and shakily. They were not doing well at all. Without hesitation I summoned Pebbles and ordered the golem to take this creature to the clinic and make it comfortable in one of the beds. I also instructed Pebbles to get Bam-Bam to make ready some food and water for when they, hopefully, woke up.

Once my golem had run off to do its thing, I tried getting a closer look at the small exit leading down. As soon as I got within a meter or so of it, It felt as if I was wading through water; and when I reached it there was an invisible barrier I could not get through.

"Bob, please see what you can do about sealing this opening up?" I spoke out into the darkness, but I knew Bob was always around. "I don't know what's down there, but I don't want it coming up here uninvited."

"Yes, boss." That was all the answer I got before I felt the stone and earth around the opening starting to shift.

I closed my eyes and focused in on the clinic, appearing there almost instantly. Pebbles was just draping the covers over a small shape on the table as I appeared. Now that I had some light I could better see what I was dealing with

Underneath the blanket, head resting on a very fluffy and comfy looking pillow, was the strangest being I had ever seen. They were shaped mostly like a human; two legs with feet, two arms with hands, a torso, neck and a head. The only thing really differentiating them from a human child was the colour of their skin, which was a deep, dark purple, and the shape of their head. I had seen enough lizards in my day to know that this was somehow a bipedal version. I tried to wrack my brain's fantasy knowledge database, and the only thing I could come up with was a kobold. Positive identification would have to wait until they woke up, providing that they weren't violent or dangerous. Though I was sure that if it came to that, my golems could handle it without too much issue.

I walked out of the clinic again, telling Pebbles to come get me as soon as the patient woke up. Then I focused on the clinic building itself. I still had quite a lot of mana left, so I figured a few upgrades on the surface couldn't hurt.

The clinic had a couple of options available for purchase.

"Upgrade cabinets to 'medical supply cabinets' 10 mana. Fills your cabinets with healing potions and bandages. Once an item is taken or used, it respawns in 24 hours."

"Upgrade beds to 'patient bunk' 10 mana. Provides those that sleep in it for at least eight hours with the 'well rested' condition."

"Upgrade clinic to hospital 60 mana. Requires shack level 2, requires at least 10 meters of free space surrounding the current building. Provides more space for beds and supplies. Allows injuries and damage to be healed at a rate of ten hit points per day, for those resting in a bed within the building."

That seemed like something I could definitely use. I purchased all the upgrades and nearly fell over when, once again, the ground started shaking. It wasn't as violent as last time, but it caught me off guard. The shaking was due to the clinic building actually growing. The walls pressed outwards, covering a much larger area, and now had a few windows set into them. From the outside I could already tell that the indoor space was now divided into rooms and was brightly lit by some sort of fire. I hoped that the expansion hadn't spooked my patient too badly, though I doubted they were in any condition to wake up yet.

With that emergency handled, for now, I went back downstairs to check in with Bob. When I entered the small, unintentional room, I could at first not see where the other exit had been. Not until I really focused and saw the trace evidence of green mana having been woven into the wall.

"Good job, mate." I gave Bob a mental high five. He chuckled. "Now, what other ideas did you have for the entrance and tunnel?"

*****

More than a few hours had gone by since I left the small extra room together with Bob and now I was standing outside, looking at a large dirt and stone mound. At the bottom of the mound was an enormous double door made from wood, crisscrossed with iron bands. Two heavy looking iron rings formed the handles, but I thought it looked way too heavy for any single person to pull open. I was proven wrong when, without a sound, the doors slid open and a small, fur covered head poked out before the whole wolf emerged and ran off. If one of the wolves could open it, surely a human, or humanoid, could too.

"It looks really good, Bob."

It really did look good. Around the door was a frame of solid flint, which in turn was seamlessly woven into the rock of the mound itself. Bob had even gone ahead and made a fairly sizable dirt road leading from the main road up to the entrance. I would have to remember to put up road signs at some point.

Continuing to look at the rest of what Bob had made, I walked through the large doors and ended up in a grand hall. And by grand, I do mean grand. The room was at least twenty meters long and no less wide. Large stone columns lined a cobblestone path, and each pillar had a torch affixed to it. On either side of the path, just inside the doors, was a guard station, raised up about three meters above the floor, giving a good view of the whole room. Further in, the left side had a large stone plinth with a glowing, green orb on top of it. The right side had a massive stone statue of Buddy, fangs bared and all. A small metal plaque on the wall next to the statue read simply "Buddy, Wolf Scion and Dungeon Guardian".

"Wow…" I struggled to find words for a good minute. "That looks absolutely awesome, Bob."

"Thank you." Bob's voice was as emotional as I imagined a synthetic robot voice could sound. "I figured that your first denizen and scion deserves some recognition."

"I agree completely." I nodded for emphasis, pretty sure Bob could see me. "We have to show him this! He will absolutely love it!"

The rest of the entrance tunnel was largely unremarkable. Bob had used up a majority of the available mana on the entrance hall, so the rest would have to wait. What really couldn't wait, however, was showing Buddy his statue.

Buddy was lazily sunbathing on top of his rock as I appeared in front of it. He barely opened one eye to acknowledge my presence. I cleared my throat and he reluctantly raised his head and opened both eyes.

"I'm sorry to disturb your very important work." I couldn't help the sarcasm flowing out of me."But if you could spare but a few moments of your time, I have something I want to show you."

As I had guessed, Buddy liked his statue very much. He liked it so much, in fact, that he decided to relocate his favourite sunning spot to the top of the mound. He did look very regal up there, looking out over his domain, and he would scare the ever loving shit out of any careless visitors.

Leaving Buddy to relax in the sun again, I turned and looked out over my, so called, village. It wasn't much but it at least felt a bit like home. No cars or people, sure, but the buildings and roads made it feel at least partly like a little village back home. I told myself that the rest of it would come one day. At least I knew there were people around, and a real village somewhere to the east. Maybe one day I could make contact with the people there?