I had a problem.

I had a big problem.

I was now stranded in a much lower floor.

I wasn't quite sure how that had happened.

I had sensed more floors growing between those that were flooded and those that were burning.

I had caught glimpses of space twisting against itself through my connection to my floors and all the units I had gathered within them.

I had been stunned when that connection snapped shortly thereafter.

I felt dread when I began to sense the flow of ambient magic around me.

Fra from receding, the tide was only rising higher and higher. The very air becoming saturated with more potent energies than before.

I noticed the changes at once, as they affected all life on the floor. Not just me or my units, but also the rest of the monsters that were behind and in front of me.

I sensed that those who had been present had either been killed outright or been stunned by the shockwave.

I likened it to a difference in pressure. From a magical perspective. The sudden tsunami had flooded the cores, as well as the bodies. Overloading them until the strain was nearly unbearable.

I vaguely recalled something similar that happened to divers out in the ocean. When they rose up to the surface too quickly.

I remembered the child shivering when he watched a documentary.

I thought there was a word for it. Embolism? Maybe.

I didn't think that mattered too much right now.

I did think what happened next was noteworthy however.

The walls, floor and ceiling of the current floor began to melt. The hard surfaces becoming semi-liquid while still retaining their integrity.

The child would have guessed the entire Dungeon was about to collapse.

I knew better.

I could feel the changes, through a new perspective.

I now saw the Dungeon as a living, breathing, developing young organism.

I now saw that it was akin to one big womb.

I now saw that it was giving birth. To greater numbers of more ferocious, more powerful monsters.

All of whom wasted no time in gorging on their elders. Ripping apart their previous counterparts as easily as I would in their place.

I couldn't help but be fascinated. Captivated by the beauty of it all.

I realized I had been lucky. Overly proud.

The monsters I had been killing were strong, yes. But even the most powerful ones I had come across so far would have been on the lower end of level 4. More or less the same as the older child on the surface.

I had prevailed because of my overwhelming numbers, combined with my tactics. The advantage of superior range, combined with the overlapping ailments and conditions I and my army could inflict made up for the shortfall in power, if barely.

Any one of the older monsters might have been able to kill me in one hit, but they would have had to cross hundreds of meters of adhesive, electrified, freezing, slashing, burning, envenomed and corrosive webs first.

Not to mention having to deal with small cuts from sacrificial Venomlings and burning boils from Napalmlings. Constant corrosion from air-borne bacterial attacks from the Siege Slimes. Attempted invasions of parasitic worms from Body-snatchers and Infector Spiders. Covering fire from Riflelings, Sniperlings, and Cannonlings, all of whom were firing Burrower Roach Rounds that delivered further concentrated payloads of venom and slime upon their own death. As well as the occasional flanking maneuver from Shotgunlings, Torchers, Shockers and Corroders.

In addition to all those regular units, I also had specialized surprises which I had tailored to specific monsters. Such as the amethyst-covered Shield-bearers I had deployed against the children in order to slow their advance.

It was slow going, but I had been confident of achieving victory with those odds. If I was proven wrong, all I would have to do is fall back to re-group and further adapt my units to the current challenge.

Mighty as they were, the monsters I'd been killing could have been described as stupid. Driven more by instinct than anything else. A need to feed, combined with a need to defend themselves. Even the ambush spiders, which had been the smartest ones I had faced so far, could not form plans beyond setting traps and making the fights easier for their lesser cousins.

I knew these newborns were different at once.

Not only did they encroach on level 5, but the way they carried themselves, their own internal magic, was far beyond anything their previous counterparts had been capable of.

I knew that it was far beyond anything I was capable of, even at these distances.

Even while spying on them through the eyes of sacrificial units I had sent ahead to scout.

The new 47th floor was a field of mud. Wet, pulpy soil that looked as if it would swallow anything that stepped on it whole in the manner of a hungry maw.

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The monsters ranged from fish the size of horses to centaurs with webbed appendages and finned tails the size of whales. aside from them, there were large horned lizards with bladed tails that waddled on all fours and winged lizards that flew over the slaughter without a care in the world. Both smaller than the centaurs, though not by much.

Yet the most fearsome beasts were twice as big. Colossal scaled raptors with oversized jaws and glowing eyes that did not sink into the mud despite their obvious weight and humanoid insects that dove in and out of the mud freely. Their hand-like appendages grabbing onto prey before dragging them down and suffocating them.

I imagined several scenarios in which I attempted to kill the weakest of the new monsters.

I could not imagine a situation in which I would win. Not at that time.

Even the weakest of the things I saw, the giant mudfish, gave off an aura of pure bloodlust that told me they would cleave through my lines within seconds.

I knew that continued exploration was out of the question until I was stronger.

I even feared that reaching level 2 might not be enough to guarantee my safety on the current floor, let alone the next.

I also knew that the previous floor, the one I had just conquered, would be far deadlier now, in addition to being more difficult to traverse for my units.

I came to the conclusion that my current goal should be surviving this sudden change.

So, I began to formulate an entirely new approach.

I reasoned that I still had the bracelet and that it was still functioning.

I knew that either the lustful man or his son would be checking on the children sooner or later.

Either, or both, would be able to track the signal over to where I was.

Perhaps the gloomy man would even be able to teleport beside me and retrieve me before that happened.

Therefore, my best chances of surviving the Dungeon as to hold out for as long as possible.

I reasoned that the first issue was that I could feel wandering monsters from the current floor finishing their meals and beginning to explore their surroundings. One or more might wander close to me in time.

I reasoned that the second issue was that no amount of defences would keep me alive in a direct confrontation.

I concluded the correct course of action would be to avoid a direct confrontation.

I began by growing several dozen drones and ordering them to dig a big hole for me to hide in.

The monsters might be able to sense whatever was in the mud, but the soft, traversable mud would end eventually, giving way to hard, nigh-impenetrable stone, just as with any other floor.

I would then modify my mouth into a long tube and use that to breathe. While growing another layer of cartilage resembling an inert mineral.

I decided on a layer of amethyst and moved on.

I then began designing new units. Selecting parts and biological processes that favoured stealth, rather than coordinated assaults.

My first new unit was a combination of insect and human, much like the giants that swam through the mud on this floor.

I designed the carapace and skeleton to be as light as possible, since even a glancing blow would kill it in any case.

I designed the appendages to be webbed, so that it could walk and crawl along the mud without sinking.

I designed the eyes, ears and nose to be larger and far more developed and created redundancies in the kinds of sensory organs I added so that the creature could see with different kinds of specialized eyes and hear with different kinds of specialized ears.

I designed it to be human-sized, but made it so that it was always hunched, with a low profile.

I designed its outline so that it reflected echolocation and gave it both a natural camouflage in the form of its colors and an ability to blend in to its environment.

I designed it to possess a far more potent Worm Bio-rifle, storing a single, far more developed and resilient parasitic worm.

I designed it so that it could deliver hundreds of smaller, less developed worms through the strike of an oversized stinger.

Lastly, I designed its brain, so that it was larger and more complex than those of any other unit.

I gave it the ability to form independent thoughts and strategies.

I gave it the ability to judge the relative strength of its opposition and the inclination to ambush monsters, or else lure then into the jaws of larger predators.

I gave it the ability to formulate plans and tactics of its own and to act as a relay between me and the other units, in case another surge of magic separated us.

Most importantly, I gave it the ability to command other units in my stead. In battles far removed from where I was at the moment.

As for the worms themselves, I changed them so that they could burrow through tough bodies more efficiently. Giving them harder jaws, tougher skins and larger brains of their own. All that, to support a new experimental mechanism, whereby the worm would impregnate the host with larval versions of my new unit. Until such a time as they were ready to burst out of their corpse and start the process all over again.

I reasoned this would allow me to keep the numbers up and make up for unforeseen losses. Or perhaps even increase my numbers even further.

Moreover, by making the worms intelligent and resilient enough to abandon a host once a larger host had eaten them and giving them the imperative to dig their way out of the stomach lining of the new host into their own system, I created a method by which the largest and most menacing monsters might be slain from the inside.

The chances weren't good, but it was the first trial run of an experiment.

So, I called my new units Subverters and let them loose upon the floor.

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I was not rescued on the third day since the child first descended.

I thought that was fine.

The Subverters had outperformed even my most optimistic expectations.

Most of them had died, but not before infecting at least one target.

I even had the chance to force a few enslaved monsters over to me, so that I could [Assimilate] them.

I was happy, since I would still be taking advantage of this last period of growth before the level up.

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I was not rescued on the fourth day since the child first descended.

I thought that was fine.

I had reached the second level and all the units I produced from then on had benefitted from the new strength.

I was able to concentrate more magic on each body.

I was able to give each new body the ability to heal themselves and use limited versions of my own skills.

I gave the new Subverters the power to grow more worms within themselves, after they had fired one.

I gave the new Worms the power to reproduce new units at a far quicker pace and the power to partially [Transform] their hosts from the inside, while the latter were helpless to stop them.

I gave both the power to [Drain] their victims of lifeforce. Both without and within.

The new Subverters were capable of infecting far more monsters before being ripped to shreds.

I called on them to bring me more and more monsters on the brink of death, so that I gained more power through each new [Assimilation].

I grew fat and pondered how to improve on the rest of my designs.

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I was not rescued on the eight day since the child first descended.

I thought that was fine.

I had designed a smarter, larger and more devious version of the Subverters.

I called this new unit, the Saboteur.

I gave each one the power to command other Subverters, as well as other units the Subverters created through infecting monsters.

I also created a more efficient relay creature. One which was all brain, with the ability to coat itself in bacterial slime and organs that would fill up with hot air in order for it to float through the air. Above the battlefield.

I also discovered that they could act as batteries for me. Storing excess magic.

They could not produce my own magic themselves, but this was fine.

I called these new units, Masterminds and deployed them just in time to see the 47th floor conquered. All the superior monsters having been enslaved. One by one.

I ordered them to come to me so that I could devour them.

I then set my sights on the 48th floor.

Sending Masterminds, Saboteurs and Subverters on ahead, while I remained put to dominate the 47th floor.

And to gorge myself on its remaining inhabitants.