“What a troublesome dungeon, to think we have to go back all over to search for the remaining stone slabs.”

“You all must thank me. If I didn’t pick the first slab, we’ll never figure it out.”

“Yes, yes, whatever. Hurry up and put them in their place, Sid.”

“Alright, get ready for the boss battle, guys. Here I go.”

Sid placed all of the four stone slabs, each represent an element, into the slots on the pedestal. A clicking sound was heard as the last slab fit in, followed by a rumbling from the slowly opening door.

“Be careful, there's something behind the door!”

“... Is that... gold?”

“Wrong focus. Incoming attack!” Crystela thrust down her shield, solidifying her defensive position in front.

At the end of the opened door, the only fighter golem in my dungeon, Boss of level one, had been gathering a wind around his sword’s blade. Pointing the blade forward, he released a tornado towards the adventurers.

“,” Tsalja shouted, raising the wall of ice between them and the Boss.

However, a portal appeared before the tornado and behind the adventurers, something they failed to realize because the wall was blocking their vision. The tornado entered the portal and came out from behind the party.

The twins, Gora and Gara, together with Sid became the first victims. The tornado threw them all to sides, causing them to slam hard onto the corridor walls and instantly lost consciousness.

A morpher, which Tsalja had been keeping since after the battle in the thirteenth room, saved its master by pushing her to aside and let the fierce wind tore it in her stead.

Meanwhile, Orga who was covering Linia received the tornado hit directly on his back. Although Linia was able to slip from the impact unharmed, Orga was dragged forward and met Crystela’s shield. Both him and Crystela were being pushed until they the ice wall stopped them.

“Ngh… AHH!” Linia was trying to stand up when several thrown rocks hit her head and knocked her out.

“Linia!” Tsalja exclaimed upon seeing the priestess fell. She didn’t have time to worry about others, however, as the rocks were now aimed at her.

“ *Bleagh*,” Tsalja managed to finish her call while covering her head, even though a cockroach had entered her mouth. Three of the water guardians, in their solid ice form, lined up and blocked the rocks from reaching her. Looking above, she spotted the culprits, which were the monkeys on a small platform near the cave’s ceiling.

*SLAM!*

Crystela’s shield flew and rammed the monkeys, creating a loud sound while killing the primates. Half of the shield was piercing the wall and stuck there afterwards, along with three stacking crushed monkeys’ bodies on it. The survivors immediately withdrew from the scene.

“Behind you!” Crystela warned.

Tsalja rolled on the ground, barely escaping a slash from the Boss who suddenly appeared behind her using a portal. The morphers quickly intercepted before the Boss could give pursuit.

The Boss swayed his body back to avoid one of the morphers’ hand-turning-sword while swinging his own broadsword, cutting the hand, and gave the other a round kick using his sword as an axis, sending the iceman several meters away.

The last morphers turned into a wave that swallowed the Boss and returned into ice halfway, sealing the Boss’ movement. The other two morphers followed the example, freezing the Boss even further.

The mage girl’s lips curled into a smirk. She probably thought she had won, how wrong she was.

“Look out!” once again Crystela warned. It was too late, however. Two golems from the last room already made their way behind Tsalja and swung their rock fists. Crystela could only make a grimace as her last party member had fallen.

With the caster no longer conscious, the ice enveloping the Boss was melting away. The fighter golem variant then turned his attention to her. Even though she was unable to move, as several lesser tyrantulas had been restraining her with their threads earlier, I could see she was trying to do something.

The Boss was charging his wind sword when fire suddenly ignited from Crystela’s hand and spread quickly through the flammable threads, releasing her restraint. My lesser tyrantulas disconnected themselves from the burning thread and, after the Boss gave them a signal, made an escape. They had fulfilled their assigned role.

The two golems tried to catch Crystela but she was too fast for them. She even managed to evade the tornado blast from the Boss twice, the first original blast and when it came again through a ’s portal.

She made a fatal mistake, however, when she stepped on a pitfall. “KYAH! No way, there shouldn’t be a pitfall trap here. AAHH, MY LEG!!” she screamed as she felt something was dragging and piercing her trapped leg, unable to escape.

Of course she was right, there was no pitfall trap there, before. Yet, my gi-ants had dug several from underground while she was running around avoiding the golems and the tornado blast. They would be crunching and feasting on her trapped leg now if not for the ‘no fatalities' rule.

Crystela made a small gesture and the tucked shield released itself to return to its owner. As the Boss was also approaching, the shield came from his behind. Nevertheless, he tilted his head in the last moment and knocked the shield away after it passed him.

“Haaa… Haaa…,” she panted. When she saw the Boss raising his sword in front of her, she closed her eyes, accepting the fact that they had lost.

(Finish, at last. Hmm, what should I take for my prizes? Should I let Rowd choose them for me? No, wait, I have a better idea.)

Meanwhile, mana-suckers had gathered from the portals opened by the Boss and had been sucking the adventurers’ mana. I absorbed their best equipments, most were their weapons or shield except Tsalja who didn’t bring any. It was a magic-bracelet for her case.

I then returned to my Dungeon Lord in the first room. At the same time when I opened my eyes, Rowd and his two minions appeared from a portal, bringing in the seven adventurers.

‘Master,’ he greeted while bowing, after laid down the bodies.

“Good job,” I replied with a nod.

After he and his minions returned into the portal and it closed behind them, I looked better at the losers on the ground. It was then when I realized a big problem.

(Uh, the injuries on Orga’s back and Crystela’s leg looked really bad? If no one heals them soon, they’re going to die and never awake, aren’t they?)

While it might be different after more adventurers came, as there should be more healers available, for now Linia was the only one who could do healing magic. Thus, I decided to try waking her.

“Linia… Hey, sister, wake up,” I poked her cheek but got no response.

(Not good, she is bleeding on her head. At this rate, is she going to die as well? Uwaah, and when I had just established an agreement too. They may start to hunt me seriously if I let them die!)

“Wake up, sister. If you don’t, I’ll take your chastity away. Come on!” I shook her and kept on trying to no avail.

(I probably need to do something to her wound first.)

Light particles gathered on my palm and solidified into a bottle of health recovery potion. I elevated her head and tried to pour the potion into her mouth, but the liquid couldn’t even pass her lips.

(Uh, there is no other way. It’s an emergency, Alv, not I’m being unfaithful. You would understand, right?)

I put the content in my mouth and got closer to her lips, all while trying to chase any lewd thought away. I transferred the liquid through our lips and had her drank it.

“Ngh…,” she let out a sound.

(Has she come to?)

I resisted the temptation to prolong the kiss and pulled my head like a gentlemen. I saw her eyes began to open slowly.

“Are you awake yet, sister Linia?” I asked.

My question somehow made her awoke completely. “AHHH!!” she screamed and pushed me away with all her might, something that made her fell to the ground afterward. “Ouch!” she exclaimed, rubbing her head.

“You okay?” I scratched my own head. “If you’re awake, can you heal your friends? They’re in bad condition, you know.”

She turned her face away and didn’t give a clear answer, mumbling something about her first kiss being stolen with a red face. Well, I didn't particularly see her face, but even her ear had become completely red.

(Uh, sorry.)

At least she understood what I said, since she then casted the area healing magic . One after another, the adventurers on the ground regained consciousness as their wounds healed.

“Welcome back,” I said, after they all had sat down.

“Damn, we were so close,” Gora complained.

“So close to death, you mean? If not for the agreement, we'll never open our eyes again,” his brother Gara replied.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“That's what the agreement for. Let’s enter again and get all those golds this time,” Gora suggested.

“Check your equipment first before saying something irresponsible. How are you going to conquer a dungeon without a weapon?”

“Ah! My sword is gone!”

“What happened? I only remember Tsalja raised an ice wall and suddenly I was blown away,” Sid looked confused.

“It was an attack from the Boss, a golem of some sort. We were all defeated by it. However, its sword, you should recognize it too, don't you, Crystela?” Tsalja remarked.

"What about the sword?" Orga asked.

Crystela didn’t say anything, she just looked straight at me with a complicated expression. After a while she stood up and cleared dirts from her clothes and armor. “We can get our weapons back if we use the pedestal over there, right?” she confirmed.

I nodded. “Yes. But if you're willing, I would like to trade several morphers with your equipments plus a gold coin for each of you,” I offered.

Rather than Crystela, it was Tsalja who answered. “Our equipments plus five gold coins for each of us,” she said, negotiating the price.

“What's that? Aren’t you a greedy woman?”

“Thank you,” she grinned while playing with her beautiful dark hair.

“That's not a compliment,” I protested.

“You know, that much is nothing. Elemental guardians are a powerful force equal to C-rank monsters. For you who only have D-rank monsters other than golems, my morphers are valuable additional for sure.”

I gave it a thought. “Fine, but I want ten morphers,” I said.

“It's ten gold coins for each of us, then.”

“Hey!”

“I know you can breed them. The more you have, the more you can get from breeding them,” she smiled, which made me sighed.

(Seventy mana points. It's cheap for ten morphers, they're stronger and more flexible than golem in many ways. But seventy gold coins are a big amount of money, aren't they? Won't the prices inflate if I suddenly create that much of golds?)

After some more thought, I decided I could be careless about inflation and agreed with a condition. “Give me a discount,” I said.

After a short moment, she replied, “One additional morpher for bonus.”

“Deal!”

With that, light particles gathered beside me and then materialized into the equipments and gold coins. Seeing that, Tsalja also called her morphers, three at a time, until there were eleven of them. I created and put a core for each of them, before ordered them to go inside.

“Now if you excuse me, there is something I need to do,” I said. I then opened a portal using to the last room and left the adventurers on their own accord, pretending to not realize Linia had been avoiding eye contact with me while blushing for the whole time.

Once I was alone, I reviewed the beta test run that had just finished a moment ago. My conclusion was, although I won, I couldn’t satisfy with them had reached my heart chamber too easy.

I knew they wouldn't harm my heart because of the agreement and I knew they wouldn't easily break an agreement because doing so would taint their reputation as a big guild. However, it felt like I was at their mercy and I didn't like that feeling.

There were two methods of getting out of such situation. First, by increasing the difficulty to reach the last room, and second, by moving my heart to somewhere else. The former would need to be done eventually, but I was more interested with the later for the moment.

Considering my choices, I checked my mana points just to be sure. I currently had enough to even expand by three levels if I used them all.

(Alright, let’s add a level.)

I used and chose expand by one level. However, I got another choices instead of being drained by 3,000 mana points right away.

You can select the following expansions with additional Mana Points.

* Add Underground Level

* Add Surface Level (locked)

* Claim Surrounding Area

(Additional mana points? Uh, to think my dungeon want to rob me too.)

I made a grimace. Of course Tsalja didn’t really rob me and seventy points weren’t much, but her way to reach the deal made me felt I was being robbed. I sighed and calmed myself, concentrating on what in front of me.

(Hmm. What’re the Surface Level and Claim Surrounding Area?)

I focused on surface level part and got the explanation I want.

Add Surface Level (locked)

Add a dungeon level above the dungeon entrance.

Requires Claim Surrounding Area to unlock

(A level above? Oh, like a tower dungeon? But tower dungeons are almost unheard of until now, is there a reason why they're so rare compared to their underground counterparts? Then, what about the Claim Area?)

Claim Surrounding AreaClaim the area around dungeon entrance. The claimed area will be treated as part of the dungeon, with some limitations.

Prequisition to Add Surface Level

Radius

Mana Points

100 meters5,000200 meters20,000300 meters45,000400 meters80,000500 meters125,000

(Expensive! Why is an additional higher than the principal cost?! But... the area will be treated as part of the dungeon, does that mean I can finally use outside? It's a good thing if it’s true. I need to find out what are the limitations, however, other than the high cost. Nevermind, let's add an underground level first.)

Thus, I chose add underground level.

Add Underground LevelAdd a dungeon level below the dungeon entrance.

Layout

Mana Points

Basic Cave0Ruins2,000Solid Structure4,000

(Great, another choices.)

I focused on then read the explanation. From what I understood, basic cave was the most brittle of all. An invader could forcefully dig their way or reshape it with . On the other hand, Ruins was more difficult to deal while Solid Structure was almost impossible to be changed.

Unfortunately, being an earth elemental-mage myself, unable to reshape the rock and ground would mean my greatest weapon being sealed. This dungeon was supposed to be my home turf, not giving me disadvantage. Although, obviously, as the dungeon lord I didn’t really have to fight other than in the last room.

Moreover, spending 2,000 mana points for a stronger structure seemed a waste. Even though it said the cave was the most brittle one, it didn’t mean it would be easy to dig or reshape. I doubt any invader would be foolish enough to focus on digging with monsters around.

Thus, I chose the cheapest, which is the basic cave.

The cave was shaking and dropping some rubles when I did. Once it stopped, there was a downstairs on the wall where my heart was a moment before. I followed the stairs and found myself in another cave room, the first room in second level. My dungeon heart was on the wall there.

Feeling satisfied, I opened the dungeon overview.

Dungeon OverviewDungeon TypeCaveLevels2Rooms32Biological Types31Non-biological Types4Drops Types18Dungeon Skills5Titles1Mana Points5,708

(Ah, level 2. It feels like I have leveled up. Good. Let's fill this level with more puzzles than the previous one.)