Both Jimmy and Atrono perked up — pleased that Rick was including them before choosing what to do with his floor.

“What do you have in mind? Any new minions?” Jimmy asked as his eyes went vacant while he looked through his Dungeon Attendant skills.

“I have some ideas, but I want to hear what you guys think,” Rick said. “And yes, I do have new minions available. Twenty-one of them.”

Jimmy whistled while Atrono had a satisfied grin.

“You know how I always like zombie movies?” Jimmy began.

Rick chuckled, “Yeah, but I don’t think twenty-one zombies will be very scary for anyone these days.”

Jimmy looked a little embarrassed, “Yeah, that’s true. Dumb idea, sorry.”

“Actually, let me check something. You just gave me a good idea. Thanks, Jim,” Rick said and opened the shop. He started filtering words like swarm, horde, flock, and mass. He intentionally left out “pack” so that he didn’t have to sift through more wolves. What popped up instead were a lot of weak insect type minions. None of them appealed to him since he already had Luca and nothing stood out to him.

Atrono cleared his throat, “Just so you know, floors with large numbers of weak mobs don’t do very well on the broadcasts. Though, I do get the sentiment.”

“Yeah, forget about it, Rick. I’m just spitballing here.”

Rick felt slightly relieved and directed his next question to the centaur, “So what are some crowd favorites?”

An evil grin crept up Atrono’s face. “There are a few, but I have one particular type in mind. They are a little different than your typical minions.”

“Okay, I’m listening,” Rick said.

Atrono pulled his tablet out of one of his bags and tapped the screen with surprising speed. “The first one is a Gorgon.”

“Isn’t that like Medusa from Greek Mythology?” Jimmy asked.

The centaur narrowed his eyes. His curiosity outweighed his annoyance at being interrupted. “A what?”

“You really need to polish up on your Earth legends, Seabiscuit,” Jimmy jabbed.

“Medusa was a mix between a serpent and a human woman. She also had snakes for hair and could turn people into stone by looking at them,” Rick explained.

Atrono’s jaw opened and closed a few times before managing to respond, “I wonder. Many of Earth’s legends exist in the multiverse. There must be some kind of explanation.”

Jimmy shrugged, “How did humans get here in the first place? Or the invaders that helped nuke half our population? I’m assuming that Earth has had a lot of visitors that went under the System’s nose.”

“You have a point. This is an interesting place despite the lack of diverse intelligent life,” Atrono said. “Anyway, Gorgons are not snakes, though they are covered in metal scales. They’re large, musclebound creatures with hair-trigger tempers. Sharp horns like demons protrude from their heads and they charge at Challengers with reckless abandon. However, much like Medusa, they breathe a poisonous gas that petrifies any who inhale it.”

Jimmy whistled and peered at the centaur’s screen, “Glad we didn’t have any of those when the curse hit. By the way, those are bulls with a little extra flair. We have those here.”

Atrono tapped a hoof on the floor, “I was hoping to impress you with that one.”

“The Gorgons sound very impressive. They sound like they’d do well on the first floor. Maybe I’ll buy one if they’re available,” Rick said.

Atrono nodded, “Yes, everything I mention should be available to you.” He tapped at his tablet again and pulled up another picture of what appeared to be an elf with skin the color of dull metal. “These are called Drow. They’re evil as sin, but I still find them more palatable than regular elves.”

“Why’s that?” Jimmy asked. “Elves are cool.”

“What? Elves always suck,” Rick blurted out.

“You know of elves?” Atrono said with narrowed eyes.

“Yeah. There’s loads of stories with elves here,” Jimmy said.

“Of course there is,” Atrono grumbled. “What about Drow?”

“Beats me,” Rick said. Jimmy just shrugged his shoulders.

Atrono smiled for the first time — excited to show them something new. “The nice thing about Drow is that they manage themselves and viewers love them. If there aren’t any Challengers coming in, the Drow are always training. If you use all of your free minions on twenty-one, level one Drow, they will level themselves up and a leader will emerge.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“That sounds pretty great,” Rick said. “Are there any drawbacks?”

“Not that I’m aware of. Typically, they’re very expensive, so it might be difficult to purchase more unless you get more free minions.”

“Will they reproduce like the lizardfolk?”

Atrono shook his head, “No, they are slower than humans at reproducing – I don’t see that as a drawback though. Quality over quantity and all that.”

“So if I made a floor and filled it with Drow, what kind of environment would they thrive in?”

“They typically live underground, but they’re very adaptable. They would thrive on the second floor,” Atrono said. “They also love giant spiders that they tame.”

“How would they get along with Luca, the Snatchers, and eventually the Kaiju?” Rick asked.

“Oh, they wouldn’t! The floor would be in a constant battle. Excellent for viewership,” Atrono rattled on, growing more excited.

“So if you’re suggesting I put them on the second floor, what the hell should I do with the free floor?”

Jimmy piped in before Atrono could respond, “You can combine it with an existing floor.”

“Why would I do that? I can already grow them,” Rick argued.

Atrono’s eyes widened, “Excellent idea, Jimmy. It is theorized that some of the older, larger dungeons do this over and over, compounding their floors. The effects on space and time are unpredictable. I suspect that combining the floors is a method of creating pocket universes.”

The thought made Rick’s mind bubble in confusion. “It just seems that it would be a drop in the bucket compared to me pumping my Energy into my Spatial Expansion. I don’t want to squander a free floor based on theories.”

Jimmy shrugged, “Dude, your Spatial Expansion ability is already overpowered. Through my recent research, most dungeons task their minions with physically growing their domain. What you’re doing is pure space magic.”

“Even if it’s not as impressive as we might think, then we’ll know. It’s better to test this now than when it gets harder to obtain new floors. Plus, even if it is a failure, you can focus on just a couple of floors to grow rather than a whole new one,” Atrono said, backing up Jimmy.

Rick thought it over. It would take some pressure off of him growing another floor. He could then easily have enough room for the Kaiju and grow his other floors more. If there was an unexpected bonus to combining the floor, it’d just be icing on the cake.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” Rick said.

Atrono pulled out his little crystal ball and motioned for Jimmy to come watch as he began viewing the 2nd floor.

The floating blueprint of Rick’s domain materialized as he focused on the new free floor. There were no instructions or anything telling him what would happen if he combined it with another floor. He simply slid the smaller holograph into the second floor, giving him a faint outline of it within.

Nothing indicated what would happen if he confirmed the combination.

“Will this fuck me up? I don’t think I can handle another catastrophe so soon,” Rick said, growing nervous.

“No, I don’t think so. Nothing I’ve learned about floor combining spoke of adverse effects,” Jimmy said, confident in his limited knowledge.

Rick mentally sighed and confirmed combining the free floor with Luca’s floor. Immediately, his focus went there where he witnessed the impossible happen.

To Jimmy and Atrono, the walls and ceiling must have appeared to vanish.

Rick, on the other hand, felt his domain expand exponentially. By his estimate, the floor was now the size of the entire State of Arizona. Not only had it grown, but the Creeping Talamalo burst from the ground in all areas, casting a faint purple light on the area.

Luca and the Snatchers looked around in surprise at the growth but were otherwise unaffected. The expansion suddenly made their little base of operations feel incredibly lonely.

“I’m gonna need more shit to fill this place in,” was all Rick managed to say as they all took in the sheer size of the floor.

“Yeah, just twenty-one Drow feels like it won’t be enough,” Jimmy agreed.

“We can fill it up over time. This is an incredible achievement,” Atrono cooed. “Not only that but now you can build a fortress for the Kaiju. A true arena for when the portals open.”

As usual, the expansion filled Rick with a strange form of ecstasy. On top of that, the pressure he’d been feeling to expand the second floor evaporated. For the first time since the integration, he had one less thing to worry about. He’d had a constant mountain of problems and had been doing all he could to put the little fires out as they popped up.

“So if I purchase the Drow, what will they do with all of this empty space?” Rick asked. “What else do I need to purchase for them?”

“As I said, they’re extremely adaptable. They’ll likely carve out a territory of their own where they’ll train. They may even dig a cave system of some sort. If you have the Energy, building a mountain range may be of benefit. Perhaps emulate the 1st floor and provide them with a stream.”

Rick whistled, “Seems that I still have my work cut out for me.”

“Of course. But you’re much stronger than you were before. How long do you think it’d take you to build a mountain and stick some icebergs on top?” the centaur asked.

Rick answered by filtering Energy out of his vortex and terraforming the landscape miles away from Luca and the Snatchers. Within moments, a small mountain range began to take shape. He tried to copy the smaller mountains he’d seen in the valley of Phoenix. At the tops of each peak, he’d form a basin and fill it with an iceberg. Anytime his vortex began to visibly shrink, he’d burn some of the countless Creeping Talamalo from the borders of his domain. The process only took a few minutes as his mind worked at an accelerated speed from before he gained his recent levels.

“Remarkable,” Atrono said. “The Drow will love this area.”

“Should he throw in some weapons or tools?” Jimmy asked.

“They like to use blades and crossbows. They’ll figure out ways to imbue them with magic, making them superior to Earth weapons,” Atrono explained. “Oh, and Rick? Don’t forget to purchase at least a pair of Dreadstrider Spiders.”

It only took a moment for Rick to find them by name in the System Shop. Before he could change his mind, he summoned nineteen Drow. A mix of ten females and nine males. Thankfully, they all came with various weapons of their own.

As the Drow looked around at their new surroundings, Rick then summoned a pair of Dreadstriders on the other side of one of the mountains. Truly fearsome looking beasts that wasted no time scuttling around the mountain range to find a place to nest.

Before Rick could properly introduce himself to his new minions, they drew their weapons on each other in a silent standoff. Each looking at one another to see if there were any obvious leaders.

Their silence was interrupted as a buzzing sound grew louder.