Intelligence, a measurement of one’s ability to exert their will upon the universe. Unfortunately, while for most one can not exist without the other, but for a dungeon core… well, let’s just say ‘success’ is not measured by the ability to think. Rather, success is the measurement of tenacity and having good friends who can carry you across the finish line.

During this time System was obviously doing very important System things like keeping the dungeon from doing anything too stupid, meanwhile, the dungeon had found a new rock to gnaw on. It had learned enough about magic to know what mana was, and immediately used this knowledge to try to force evolve the spell slimes. The slimes exploded, a lot, because now the dungeon was strong enough to force a lot of mana into them at once. The dungeon was also not smart enough to realize exploding mana slimes was its fault.

Through trial and error, the dungeon did learn that the mana that flows through its monsters takes on a slight affinity for their life. This aspected mana is more complex and actually holds more weight to it when used by a dungeon. So naturally it experimented and learned double slime mana is both really good and slightly painful to eat. Almost as if it's bordering on self cannibalism to eat its own monsters.

During this time Shimmer went on the hunt. She couldn't find someone she knew she cared about, but couldn't remember who they were. She was looking for her shadow, but got distracted by new friends. A group of delvers who are scholars by nature, and entered the dungeon to document its changes and analyze the mutations in the species populace. A fancy way of saying they were obsessed with trying to figure out why some species mutate so quickly. Granted, it's because of the dungeon, but mortals lost that knowledge after The Incident™ and so are forbidden from knowing what a dungeon is.

Working with limited knowledge, the mage Samu was only mildly horrified to find that the Sage Grass that grew in the dungeon had his same mana signature. As a mage of emotions, having his vibes stolen by grass was only mildly concerning. This worry only got worse when his friend Thalman set himself on fire. As a warrior of mana, his unique ability Augmented Essence allows him to adapt to magical stimuli in the environment. Every time he collected a sample of grass, the minute channels for enchanting and holding mana were temporarily inscribed into his skin as mana was funneled into him. Well with enough mana it had to start burning off, quite literally.

The warrior whose soul was on fire as he reached a fraction of godhood made the ensuing fight with the dungeon's swarm of ants a breeze. Well, until Thalman tripped into a siphon trap that drained all that stored mana, and made him drunk on his own mortality. So to save the day Samu had to step up and channel all the raw emotions of resentment at his friends' ability to control their powers into a powerful blast that simply removed the ant swarm from existence. The only cost for this instant win button: a body that is his. His hands and arms were now covered in scales and mucus, his hands were no longer human, but like anyone with too much worry on their mind, this new feature of his body was hidden from his friends.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

So back to important things: System attempted to (metaphorically) strangle the dungeon Core. It started off innocent enough, with System cultivating a special evolution path for the foliage that had grown in the presence of Samu, but had encountered a slight error. The code System was using was corrupted, which forced a quick power nap. Unfortunately, any form of lack of supervision is enough for the dungeon to do something stupid.

The Anarchy Amber that was created by the dungeon way back when it had to fight the champion of cats was imbued into a slime. This slime would have made the perfect warrior, a champion that could take on entire civilizations with its revolutionary abilities to cause a revolution. Unfortunately, this wonderful and amazing character met a tree that didn't care what the term "friendly fire" meant, and who killed and ate the slime. Like, permanently ate the slime to gain that same destabilized ability, while a fraction of the amber core mutation filtered back into Shimmer and the rest of the spell slimes.

The tree then went on to hunt some dwarven delvers who liked to complain about the last person the adventurer's guild sent to map the place. Decked out in head-to-toe plate armor which was reinforced with enough magic to make an arch wizard blush, they thought their defenses were impervious. Well, it was, until a little cultist ant that likes to use siphon traps to steal mana stepped up.

The tree died, the ants grew more powerful, a seed grew into a new awesome tree, and life went on. More people showed up to challenge the dungeon, and were pretty good at it until they got high by throwing "herbs" into Shimmer. This did result in Shimmer gaining a poisoner title which she absolutely refuses to use on the grounds of those pesky morals.

Adventurers didn't last long for reasons, which gave the dungeon plenty of time to set up for all the other people that were going to enter the dungeon now that word had spread. Resource nodes, wheat, a field of mushrooms full of slimes, and a forest of dark rituals for the ants. For the first time, the dungeon had a proper layout, even if this had the accidental effect of removing Shimmer from her new tsundere friend Echo the tree.

Hell had frozen over because the dungeon had its first not-horrifically-stupid thought when it realized that it could evolve into a better dungeon. The reason behind the thought was still a caveman brain that wants strength so it can eat a lot, but hey it's something.

This idea of the dungeon thinking was enough to cause ripples. The gods above were scrambling and trying to do everything they could to make friends and place their bets in time. The god Trench, the god of last stands joined the crew to become a bodyguard (to the dungeon, his entire job to try to keep humans alive). Meanwhile, in a nearby village a dwarf named Gozric was absolutely freaking out because "the war is coming, there is a traitor in our mits"

Like dude, the war is over, the gods said so. He was just being paranoid, since there is no war in ba sing se- I mean, the dungeon doesn't have any enemies that are trying to hurt it. No one at all, nope, everything is totally fine and there is no need to worry about corruption, demons, or the Necronomicon.

You know you can trust me because this interlude was brought to you by the unreliable narrator: System 2.0, the cooler version who is older and teaches younger Systems how to swear.