This is my fifth altar so it doesn't take me very long to complete, considering I don't have many monsters on this floor I go a head and make my figurines really quickly.

I've gotten really good at these now. I glide through the mine slowly so I can pay attention to the change I go through as I descend, trying to figure out what exactly what I was missing for my enchantment.

Even though it took me almost forever to get through the mine to my altar I could never pinpoint the part I was missing. I was disappointed but I had no time for it. Now that I was all settled in my alter it was time to summon my fifth floor monsters.

I summoned thirty pairs of metal-eating moles so I could check them out. They look like an average mole but bigger with metal claws, I have to assume they have metal teeth if the eat metal but it's not something I need to bother with. They have a meat drop and a claw drop. The claws are shaped like gloves and can be used for mining. That sounds cool and time consuming.

I summon one hundred turret spiders and hope they become something amazing, their webs look like funnels it would be amazing if they added metals and gems to it. And then I summon fifty knockers, they don't really have a constant shape they look like moving blobs that can live in the tunnel walls. I'm wasn't sure how to make a figurine out of that so it's just a blob looking thing. On the other hand I don't think they should be hunted.

They just drop dirt if they are killed. I doubt it's normal but still leave the poor helpful elementals alone. Finally I summon thirty metal slimes. They are predictable, what ever type of metal they dissolve first is the type they will drop upon their death.

It's really dark in here now that I'm settled in with nothing to keep me distracted while I wait for my mana to refill. I'm not scared or anything I just think I've gotten used to having a day and night cycle.

I go over the list of what can be found in my new mine and I find it also contains colorful stones and different gems from the ones I found digging out my floors. They would make wonderful jewelry pieces. I have copper, iron, silver, gold, platinum and magic ore the last one is built up over time since I'm still young I don't have much but it won't take but a decade or two before I have a ton. Literally.

As for gems I have topaz, sapphire, amethyst, emerald, ruby, aquamarine, black onyx and diamond. I'm looking forward to someone striking it big down here. I'm not sure of the use of the colorful stones but I'm sure someone will tell me eventually.

I decided to make some mining carts and a track that goes down all the tunnels. It's time consuming but I have nothing else to do and I don't want to give away the route to my alter. I also make some pick axes so they aren't stuck with using the mole claws.

After waiting for my mana to refill I summon my myconids and I find that they look like mushrooms with arms and tiny legs. Quite cute really so I summoned one hundred and twenty of them. And scatter them in groups of three and five all around the tunnel system. They should spread like mushrooms I think. Their loot is edible mushrooms.

And then I check to see how giant these giant rats are by summoning twenty of them. They look pretty normal but they are three times bigger than the average rat. They really are giant. They will easily dominate the myconids. The loot for the giant rats is meat.. I'm just gonna gloss over that.

Next I summon thirty pairs of giant bats and I'm very impressed, they are adorable and they actually eat gems and metals, they drop a headband with bat ears that use a sonar to help people find ores and gems in the mines. It kind of reminds me of a metal detector that you wear.

That will make everyone's life easier. I wonder if it works outside of my dungeon as well. Now all I have left is to summon my goblins but I need to consider how they are supposed to live in the mines.

Should I collapse a few center walls and let them build a small village there? Can they live without sun full time? And can I allow them to roam over the fourth and sixth floors? I want to get answers to these questions before I start summoning them.

The system is always so helpful when I ask questions. I am required to clear them a space to make a village, as they do better in groups than roaming singles. They do not require sunlight at all but they won't run from it. I can pick one extra floor and let them roam it but not both.

Three consecutive floors with the same monster is frowned upon apparently. So I'll keep them out of the forest and make the fifth and sixth floor where they can roam freely. I choose the center of my mining tunnels and wreck those useless tunnels. I build twenty five small stone huts out of bricks for my goblins to live in and summon ten goblins, they seem happy enough and let them do their own thing.

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There is more open space for more huts but I think they should figure it out themselves if they want to be a bigger village than that. I gave each of them their own pick axe. I'm confident they could stab a giant rat to death with one. The goblins drop whatever they have on their person, if they have no weapon they just drop their loincloth. Bleh. Nasty.

I decide to give an original bracelet of strengthening to the golblins. They can't use it but at least if someone takes the time to come to the goblin village and wipe them out they should be rewarded.

I enjoy the silence of the mines, even if someone is mining you can't here it because this place is so huge and the tight hallways keep it from echoing. I still haven't figured out the soul enchantment and I'm beginning to think I don't have enough brain power to make it happen.

Maybe once I'm ten floors deeper or so I'll have enough wisdom to figure it out. I want to see what happens when the goblins run out of huts before I move on to my next floor. Call it an experiment to gauge their intelligence.

I think it only took a month before the goblins ran out of space and had to figure out how to build new homes. I was actually really surprised it only took them four days to figure out how to make a hut similar to the one I had made. They were definitely smarter than I initially gave them credit for. They could rule the mine if they wanted to.

They lived off of the drops from the rats and myconids mostly, occasionally they would corner a metal-eating mole for its claws but they used them as weapons rather than to dig.

I felt it wouldn't be too much longer before my mining tunnels were full of goblins and giant rats. The moles were more focused on eating than reproduction but they didn't lag far behind. The turret spiders had started changing already and their webs were really beautiful, they actually ate the gems and metals and it changed the color and substance their webs were made of.

They were tougher and more colorful than before. I could picture a battle dress made with my metal silk with the colors of gems. A couple enchantments and it had the possibility to be OP. I summoned forty more turret spiders and let them find their own spot.

I want to try something different this time and instead of going down a level I want to make the next floor right next to the fifth. I should be far enough down on the mountain that I can do two floors side by side. I start digging a hallway to my sixth floor when I immediately hear a ding and I pull up my notifications.

[You are unable to construct a sixth floor if you have not had a sapient delver. Unexplored dungeons can not have more than five floors so they can not be undefeatable in the case that they have become focused on murdering rather than nurturing and pruning the next generation. Please wait for a delver to continue building.]

I'm flabbergasted. Is this a real thing? I don't know if I've ever come across this particular issue before in any of my novels. I'm pretty sure I've been a dungeon core for close to a decade now and I'm still waiting on my first delver. After pondering over my dilemma for a while I came to the conclusion that it's time to use that customer service button I got for being stabbed and run down.

Interlude

On a different planet from our dungeon but the same universe.

In a brothel somewhere in a capital city, a group of five young human men celebrate a job well done. They kidnap children and women and sell them into slavery. Technically it's an illegal job but most people look the other way because it can't be stopped and at least you aren't the one being targeted. They had spent that last month finding information on a female fox girl and hunting her down so they could sell her for a pile of gold coins.

Fox people are the most profitable on the black market, not just for their magic but for their beauty and longevity. They are considered heirlooms kept for the heads of the households. They are tough finds because they tend to stick together but every so once in a while a female wanders off and is never seen again or a family dies leaving behind unwanted children.

They are indulging in their sinful ways by raping the women of the brothel and scaring off the regulars, waiting for their next score to drop into their laps. This is their usual way of life. They live in debauchery not caring if they live one day to the next.

They want to find an unregulated dungeon and kill some of the delvers inside for there treasures and women. They might have a bag of gold now but it will only last for a few days at the pace they eat and drink. They live on the move, while most people fear them and won't cross their path the guards of the empires and smaller kingdoms won't turn a blind eye.

All five of these men have decent bounties on their heads. If they could enslave a dungeon to do their bidding it would be even better, but it's really hard to find an undiscovered dungeon as they release mana to lure in animals and sapient beings a like. So they tend to be discovered before they reach five floors deep. The closest dungeon is only a two day walk or one day on horseback but it is managed by the empire and they keep track of everyone that comes and goes so these five outlaws can't go in and level up.

In the next empire over there is a dungeon that is controlled by a tycoon in the black market, it has no rules and can be consider a death hole. Most of the people that go in never come back out but those that do tend to become legends that go on to become top assassins and spies of highest level.

With their current level and being on the run it will take them several years before they make it out of the Sun empire not to mention several more years that it will take to get to the center of the High empire. It's a huge undertaking for those who can't use the main roads.

All five of the men agree with the plan of going to the dungeon in the empire next door, they agree to enjoy the night and head out in the morning before the guards can close in on them. Someone probably saw them as they walked through the city, they are low key but they refuse to cower and show fear to those around them. At first light they leave the capital and start heading towards the border of the empire, never to be seen again.