Finding out what the button did would have to wait. He spawned a golem on his fifth floor and named it "Drinking Bird." He set the golem to press the button every second. The bonus percentage should reach 86% in twenty-four hours. Hopefully, it would be easier to see whatever the bonus was actually for when there was more of a difference to work with.

Meanwhile, he had to prepare for company. He started with the golems that had gained their fighting specialization.

Where [Mining Golem] caused a big change in appearance, modifying the hands of those golems into mining tools, the changes for [Fighting Golem] seemed more flexible, but just as significant. All three training groups now sported deeply engraved lines in their surface that made them look like walking suits of banded armor. They had the same sort of armored kilts or skirts that the two delvers, Garrik and Ba'Rush wore. Their heads changed to resemble helmets with eye slits and a thin crest. The armor reminded him of something from a gladiator movie which was fair considering how they were spending their time.

Come to think of it, only Raek and a few of the bandits had worn pants. Everyone else was in robes or what looked like long shirts. He hadn't thought about it before. One more thing to ask about when he had a chance. He might need to know what armor people expected if he was going to create more loot.

The fighting golem's movements changed too. No longer slow and clumsy, they now moved with a grace and precision none of the other golems showed. As he watched a battle, one of the newly leveled Group C golems, number six, ducked a punch only to turn the motion into a fluid sweep to the leg of its opponent.

That opponent, a Group A golem, number four, leaped over the sweeping leg to plant a powerful kick to C-6's face, sending its head rolling.

C-6 didn't seem to mind the loss, launching itself up the now-exposed back of A-4, driving an uppercut with all the power in its legs and body. Its fist smashed through the center of its opponent, shattering it into pieces for a comeback victory.

The surviving golem didn't waste a beat celebrating. It turned to attack another golem that had also just finished off its own sparring partner. But C-6 did seem to be at a disadvantage without its head. It faced its opponent squarely using some sense, but it completely missed a spinning kick to the chest, and it made no attempt to block or dodge. C-6 exploded in a shower of gravel.

The surviving golem, A-2, landed gracefully with bent legs, but it was so heavy the sound still echoed like a boulder smashing into the dungeon floor.

If they were this awesome after a day of training, he couldn't wait to see what they were like after a week or a month.

Watching the fight, he realized he might get more out of them if they came to each fight at their best. A-2 had taken out C-6 with a cheap shot instead of out-fighting its opponent. He added automatic repairs to Don's task schedule, even though it would cost a bit of stone and mana. He also took a peek at the updated stats for these martial golems.

[Health 12/12]

[Agility 6]

[Strength 8]

[Constitution 3]

They were still weak compared to even the lower-level living bandits, but they might be enough against Eira's zombies.

He would still rather have some turrets. Or for zombies, maybe a few flame throwers. Flame throwers. Not a bad idea.

He moved his attention back to Level 1 and the [Cauldron Cap] toadstools.

[Cauldron Cap

This extraordinary dungeon mushroom, with its cap resembling a bubbling cauldron, is a mesmerizing fusion of nature and elemental energy.

The Cauldron Cap is a living furnace, radiating intense and constant heat. Its cap, resembling an inverted cauldron, pulses with a red glow. The air shimmers with the waves of heat emanating from this fire affinity fungi.]

It already put out considerable heat, but maybe he could improve on that. He spawned a new slime and set it to assimilate the mushroom.

The slime was tentative, stretching a pseudopod toward the heat, then drawing back. Stew was disappointed, but it had been a long shot.

He was just about to send it back to help Exterminator 1 when the little guy tried again, this time with more confidence. It engulfed the mushroom.

The inside of the slime began to bubble and boil. Several bubbles broke the surface releasing steam.

Stew watched in horror. He hadn't meant to sacrifice the slime. He quickly named the slime "Test" to save it from being killed entirely, but before he could call the whole thing off, something changed. The little slime suddenly turned a reddish color and the mushroom dissolved.

The bubbles stopped, but waves of heat still rose off the slime.

[Your Monster Has Evolved!

Thermal Slime

Thermal Affinity Unlocked]

That was a relief, no grilled slime. It wasn't the blowtorch he had hoped for, but the slime was putting off even more heat than the mushroom.

Either the bubbling noises or the heat woke Femur who was snoozing in his hut a short distance away.

"What are you up to?" He peered out of his rathide shelter with bleary eyes.

"Sorry, just an experiment. Go back to sleep, and I'll move this down a level," Stew answered, then remembered to add, "We probably have some zombies coming, so get some rest. I'll wake you when they get here."

Femur scratched his cheek and yawned. "Ah fine, they'll make for quiet neighbors." He rolled over and went back to sleep.

Stew realized Femur had never met Eira and the zombies. Never mind, he could catch-up later. Instead, he sent little "Test" down to the second level. It was just the one empty room right now with a stairwell at each end, but that would make a perfect temporary lab. Stew wasn't sure what he could do with a mobile radiator, but it would depend on just how hot the slime could get. Better safe than sorry.

"OK, Test, can you show me what you can do? What's the hottest you can get?"

The slime burbled in acknowledgment, then grew still, as if it was thinking or preparing something.

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Suddenly the slime burst into flame and began to slide across the floor like an especially fast snail. It left a flaming trail behind it. The heat was intense. If the ceiling wasn't made of stone it would probably be burning already.

[Test]

[Fire Slime - Level 1]

[Mana Cost - 1]

[Health 10/10]

[Agility 2]

[Strength 3]

[Constitution 15]

[Actions: 1/1]

[Action Recharge: 1 / day]

[Special attack: Incinerate]

[Assign Task (1 action):]

[1. Generate Lamp Oil]

Not a flamethrower, but it might work out just fine. Stew renamed "Test" to "Flamer 1," then immediately spawned "Flamer 2" through "Flamer 5" and sent them to assimilate their own mushrooms.

There weren't enough [Cauldron Cap] mushrooms to go around in the single-room cavern, but Stew was able to replace them with dungeon repairs. Once they each had a turn to assimilate a mushroom, he brought the new [Thermal Slimes] back to the second floor.

Fire seemed like a good theme for this new floor, so he called a couple of [Mining Golems] and M.U.L.E. up from the fifth floor and put them to work expanding the level while he cut grooves and channels into the floors with customization.

He spent some time looking for a way to add ducts through the ceiling, but that wasn't an option, at least not yet. He found that his new core upgrade allowed him to double the number of rooms on the level. He took full advantage of that to make a long and meandering gauntlet between the first floor stairwell and the one to the third floor.

It would take some time for the mining golems to finish their work and for the slimes to prepare their welcome. He let M.U.L.E. run the operation.

While they worked, he checked his mana and saw that even with the new slimes, his mana stores were still about where they were when Bossy and the kittens knocked off for the evening. This had to be the moss. He set all of the rooms on the second and fifth floors to maximum light to see if that might encourage more to grow. There probably wasn't much mana on two yet, but maybe the slimes would be enough to get things started, assuming the heat didn't kill the stuff outright.

[You have received a missive from Cecil. Read it? (Y/N)]

Uh, oh.

"We're almost there! I can see the top of the hill through the trees. She is very irritated. The older soul has mostly retreated with the core gone, and the younger soul is having trouble controlling so many of us. I'm finding myself able to move on my own as long as her attention is elsewhere. I'm doing my best to hide my freedom, but will try to slow the advance. Oh look, one of the others just wandered off. This may be my opportunity! If I don't make it back, this has been an entertaining contract! Please give Sluice my regards, but tell him I still don't get his jokes." – Cecil

Sluice is a him? Jokes?

So the necromancer was having some problems. If he could talk to Cecil, maybe they could hatch some sort of plan. Now seemed like a good time to do something before she got her act together.

Hmm. Yes, it would be great if he could talk to Cecil, just like when he had the false core. Stew suddenly had a terrible, dangerous inspiration. After all, if this went wrong, he would be giving her exactly what she wanted and destroying his advantage at the same time.

But right now she had a gaggle of low-level zombies, barely under her control, and this might be his only chance to take the initiative for once. He might be a dungeon, but that didn't mean he had to sit around and wait for trouble to come to him.

Or maybe it did. If he was different from other dungeons, it was time to prove it.

He reached out to Don and M.C.P. and sent a special order down to Forge.

Thirty Fighting Golems snapped to attention. Missing arms, heads, and legs began to regrow as the controllers repaired them.

Once they were whole, he set instructions for the controllers, giving Don Group A and M.C.P. Group C. He split group B between them, giving B 1-5 to Don. Those five had special instructions. He sent Sluice with Don and Sweeper with M.C.P.

The golems formed in rows of five in the arena room with the controllers to their side like drill sergeants. He gave the command and they turned in unison to face the south door, three steps exactly, moving in perfect sync.

Rather than march them across the plains of level four and up five stories of stairs, he swapped the whole arena with a room on the second floor.

Each of the five group B golems in the first rank grabbed a [Thermal Slime] to match their own number.

Once the slimes settled onto the golems' shoulders, Stew swapped the arena again. This time he swapped with Femur's office on the first floor. The door the golems faced was now the dungeon entrance. Stew reached into the customization menu and turned the simple wooden door to the outside into a [Temple Entrance] with a four-meter wide opening screened by large columns of gray stone. Five shallow steps led down to the grass of the meadow.

"Femur, wake up. I'm going to need you to talk to our delver friends again." Stew grabbed the mana core from Forge and used it to form a new [False Core] right next to Femur's bed. "And grab that, we're going to need it."

Femur yawned and stretched, then picked-up the core. He put it in a rough sack and slung it over his shoulder. He strolled over to the cave entrance and stopped, gaping at the arena that had replaced his office. His gaze moved to the assembled Golems. "Where are we going?"

"Hunting." Stew gave the order and the fighting golems began to march. Their feet hit the stone like a single drum the size of a mountain.

Femur grinned and joined in behind.

Stew moved his mind to Don where he marched beside the third rank.

In the meadow, the delver's scattered out of their camp like rabbits.

Stew had to admit he had hoped that would be their reaction. It didn't hurt to keep his bluff in, but he wasn't here to fight them.

"Tell them that Eira is returning with her undead. We're marching out to meet her forces," Stew said to Femur, then added, "and tell them they can join us, but I have to test a couple of things, so stay back and don't get caught in the middle."

Femur cocked his head and looked at the ranks of golems. "I'm guessing this Eira isn't an invited guest?"

"Let's say she had a defective product, and I'm going to introduce her to the Customer Service Team."

Femur shrugged and walked over to the delvers who were crouching in their bare feet with weapons drawn. Only Ba'Rush was fully dressed. He had apparently been on watch.

While Femur kept them distracted, Stew tested that he could swap his mind back and forth between Don and his core down on the fifth floor. Just as he suspected, the [False Core] worked like an extension of his domain, at least for that purpose.

Now the second question. He set C-2 through C-10 to attack C-1. They destroyed their comrade instantly.

Stew respawned C-1 right where it stood. He had C-1 pick-up its own dropped mana core and toss it back into the dungeon where he could absorb it and send it to storage. He couldn't be sure he could still respawn the golems while under attack, but it was promising.

"How is this possible?" Garrik was staring at the golems where they stood silent and still as statues. "Cores can't control their monsters in a dungeon break, not outside of their domain."

"Don't compare oaks to acorns, kid." Femur grinned and shook his head. "Now get your skirt on and let's go smash some bones."

It took the delvers only a few minutes to get into their armor and fall in beside Femur. Using Don's golem vision, Stew had been tracking a few firefly-like, violet lights moving deep in the forest. They were coming steadily closer. He saw that they gathered around a much brighter core of the same deep color. Another glowed with a pale gray light. That had to be Cecil.

Interestingly, there were just as many lights off to the right and these were much brighter. They were red with life. Two familiar lights glowed so brightly that he could nearly see their faces, Lithel and Sella. They and their new friends moved rapidly toward Eira's position, so he wasn't surprised when he heard from Cecil again.

[You have received a missive from Cecil. Read it? (Y/N)]

"Great news! We're under attack!"

Yes, yes you are, Stew thought.

He set the first rank of golems on fire and gave the order to march.