God… what happened? I was naming him and then I lost consciousness? Weird. I could tell the exact amount of time that passed however. Two days, six hours, and forty-one minutes. Damn, it is nice being able to tell time so accurately after my time drifting in the void. Just another perk of being a dungeon I guess.

Feeling around at my tank of power, I had more than I had when I first came, enough to spawn two slimes. I guess I could make a slime a day with my current regeneration. Immediately making two friends for little ol’ Beezlebub, the three slimes played in the pond, wrestling and chasing each other. I would have loved to witness their innocence for a few hours, but terror took hold of my heart. I wasted so much time. Again, I knew nothing. Who knows what may lie beyond the cave? What if the residents of this world can detect dungeons? What if they already knew I was here and was sending a party to kill me? Two days might mean life or death! The all too familiar paranoia of my past life was now all the more strong now that I was the lead actor on this stage. All the blinding lights were squarely on myself.

Eyes, eyes! I could feel them, watching me, oppressing me with their gazes, which were filled with all sorts of feelings. Some were unimpressed. Some were curious. Some were emotionless. I could somehow hear the administrator’s cackle, mocking me. Bitter, desperate hatred emerged, throwing countless curses towards the administrator as a form of stress relief. But I knew that I could do nothing about it, or at least for now. I barely willed myself to move past the freezing anxiety. I must survive. That is my sole mission this life. I cannot let the administrator get me a second time.

Coming back to my senses, I began some projects. The slimes seemed to work best in shallow pools of water, looking at how their play went into overdrive any time they dip in the pond, so I tasked them with dissolving the ground more to allow the pond to grow. The water seemed to never lower in level no matter how much I expanded thankfully, although I could feel the expansion taking a day or so and a bit of my power to complete, but not too much, probably because it was so shallow. Soon the whole cavern floor was covered in a thin film of water. The slimes, of course, loved that their favorite play space was expanded. I mused that I was becoming a slime daycare, but it is only right to accommodate my sole type of monster. Happier workers meant better work.

I was soon rewarded for the trouble as Beezlebub shined a bright light before growing to become a meter in diameter. Did Beezlebub… evolve? This was great news! I could make my slimes better! Color returned to the world to wipe away the despair. I guess the play had a more important reason for it! It was not just leisure, it was sparring! I let them play all they want and spawned more slimes over the course of a few days, but none of them evolved. Why aren’t you all evolving?!? Beezlebub did it, why can’t you? I was disappointed, but I suppose it was reasonable. Play fighting probably did not afford much experience or whatever they used to evolve, Beezlebub was just an outlier I guess. If one could just power level with sparring, what kind of monsters would the dwellers that actually fought real battle would be. With the mystery solved, although some parts of me were thankful I failed, I only grew more pained thinking about the time the failed evolution grinding took. But that pain became distress as alarm bells rang inside my mind. “An invader!” I instinctively recognized. Had they finally found me? I was petrified. Thankfully I was wrong, but the situation was still not the best. A creature of nightmares was invading.

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Flinging my consciousness towards the entrance of my dungeon, I saw something that brought a chill up my… uh… orb? The thing before me could give anyone afraid of insects a heart attack. The beast had thousands of thin, spike-like legs on its four-meter long, chitin-covered black body. It had no eyes but its moving antennas seemed to make up for it. It kept making loud, clattering noises with its mandibles, for reasons I could not tell then. On the very end on its body, existed a large, hook-like stinger. The worst part of this creature however was that it was making a steady march towards my core. It was coming to end me.

Alert, alert! Slimes assemble! Protect the core!

The slimes immediately ceased their goofy antics and collected around the entrance, all rumbling with fury at a intruder daring to trespass in their sanctum. I was pleased with their determination, but I feared that they did not have the ability to back it up. That chitin looked pretty solid. I doubt any of the slimes except Beezlebub could pierce it with their weak acid. They could maybe damage the legs, but just taking out a few out of the thousand would not achieve much. Why did it have to not have eyes! I could have disoriented it if I could burn its eyes! The baby slimes were practically useless in their unreliability. Well, they had one use that I could employ

Despite my frenzied thinking, the approach of the monster came ever closer, neither fast nor slowly. The chorus of the tip tapping of its legs and gnashing of its mandibles echoed through the cave. I could feel its malice drift into the cavern and choke me. It was a forewarning of what was to comeI had to make a plan now.

I ordered Beezlebub to the ceiling and to remain there until ordered to attack. The rest had a… different duty. Sacrifices had to be made.