As it turned out. Not everything needed to be tested out. While the Core would have loved to find an upper limit, it was unable to find anything noteworthy. At around one hundred and fifty kilos worth of pressure, the fifty Mana Cube was destroyed. It was then replaced by a hundred Mana cube, which was yet again destroyed, though the Core hadn't truly been paying attention to the weight at that time. Then… the Entity had come up with a side question. Was there a limit to reinforcement?

Nothing concrete had been found to answer that question. The Core just had trouble putting more Mana in at around two hundred and fifty. And, at that point, it hadn't even figured out how much pressure could be taken. As it turned out, repeatedly banging hundreds of kilos worth of stone into the ground without pause did not end up well. At some point, small fractures had started to appear around the perimeter. That had been ignored in favour of smashing rocks together. Which was a bad idea, since the nest clue that something was wrong was that pieces of the ceiling were falling.

That had been quite the experience. The Core had decidedly had no desire to be buried alive and had to restart everything again, forcing it to spend some very stressful minutes making sure that everything was stabilized. This also equalled expending almost every point of Mana it had repeatedly, just so that it could go deeper into the floor and ceiling to repair various fractures. That had not been a fun experience.

This was also why the Core gave up on its dreams of finding limits to structural enhancement. It knew that the cube could handle more than its surroundings and that was about that. Any deeper information would be saved for a time where the ceiling would not break down.

The [Arcane-Manipulation] had not ranked up while the tests were ongoing, which was quite a sad fact of life, but the Entity did its best to accept it. It wasn't like it could do much about it other than doing more tests at another time. And while there were still other things that it had quite the desire to test out, the Core thought it best to take a break on it.

For while it was fun, it was also very dangerous and perhaps deadly to the Core. So… on the metaphorical container it went, another problem picked out among the masses. One of those was… something that the Entity had just thought about. The Environment existed in was quite… open. From all sides, one could walk in and out with no warning or anything like it. While this did allow for the [Dungeon-Born] to go through every side without issue, it also allowed for others to do the same. The [Wild] creatures from the outside, all wishing to do the Core harm. Was it not expected that it needed to protect itself? And since the current method of having creatures around didn't seem effective enough, other methods needed to be taken into consideration.

First was the problem of how the creatures responded to intruders. The obvious reaction was that the [Dungeon-Born] would run towards them at full tilt, making sure that they got there the fastest possible way. And… that was a perfect method of getting to the enemy. However, there was the problem of them spending too much time getting there. Even the quickest way around didn't prove fast enough, since the place that the enemy could enter from was potential all the sides. This was somewhat mitigated with the answer of having creatures stationed at every point but that just brought the issue of the enemy automatically having superior numbers and being able to take on the defenders in smaller waves as they came. The Core had seen the results of letting such a strategy unfold. Even with superior numbers, the Entity had still nearly lost all of its resources to the intruders. It had been a terrible result, all due to the defenders not being able to attack at the same time. It had evened the battlefield too much, giving the attackers too much of a chance.

The Core did not want to give them a chance. It loathed the idea of letting its creatures be killed for no purpose. Sacrifice for a cause could be understood, yet the mindless slaughter was on the level of needless expenses. So… a tightening of possibilities needed to be made.

With the help of walls all around, the Core knew that it couldn't be attacked from those sides. It attached the stone to the ceiling and floor, making sure it was thick enough to not be easily broken. It even had one of the larger ants attempt to do just that with it having little success.

After that, it made a tighter opening that creatures could use to get inside and out with no trouble. Not two of them at once, however, the opening was only just big enough for one of the larger ants to come out without issue. It was not meant for a larger force to suddenly enter, after all. Walls around with a small entrance and exit. That sounded like the sweetest melody, to the mental ears of the Core. It had no sense of hearing, after all, so it could only imagine it alongside taste. It understood enough that the ants had some limited form of it that allowed them to figure out poisons, but it was not more than that.

The current additions were quite a positive effect. With the reinforcement that the creatures couldn't get in anywhere else, the Core grew more sure of its safety. With this, it would be able to focus the main part of its forces around the entrance, making it possible to be much more expectant of enemy forces. It did suppose it could also seal off the entrance entirely, just letting itself be inside its own space forever, yet… that wasn't actually possible, now that it thought about it. The circulation of air was still quite needed. With all-natural regeneration put towards making sure that its sight was as big as it was, there was nothing else making sure it could do… anything. All space was currently being used, so it couldn't down-scale, and even then the process of regeneration would be much too slow. And that didn't even factor in the needs of the creatures. The Core wasn't the only one using the air, after all.

So, the hole into the outside couldn't be removed, leaving the opportunity for creatures to roam into the sight still. While this did still lower the chance of successful attacks, the Core was still very stressed about it. Which was why it built more features into it all. The first was spikes. They were settled into the ground, pointed towards the only entrance in the vicinity. To those making sure to walk carefully through them, they would prove to be no more harmful than the ground once stood on. Yet, if a creature was to run as fast as they could, not looking at anything but the Core in front of them, then they would be impaled at their legs. It would not kill them but most definitely hurt their mobility. And with the place still being so tight, any pause due to the damage would create a blockage, making any other attacker lack the possibility of moving forward. Or, well, they could move atop each other as they had done previously.

… Another feature was added then. It was more of an emergency measure, but the Core put in a series of rubble made of stone above the entrance. It was made of three layers, each able to be released independently. It would more than just kill anything beneath but also slightly seal up the entrance in an emergency. The Ants were good diggers, however, so the Entity did need to think of that possibility.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

It took the Core yet another five seconds to think more about the fact that the enemy had the tools needed to dig through solid stone. If given enough time, it made it possible for them to dig both underneath and above. The possibility of it made the Dungeon shake, yet not all was lost yet. Several meters down and up were claimed by the Core, even if it was solid material. With the information provided, it would be more than possible to know of any attacks ahead of time. That did soothe the nerves at some level, at least, the slight possibility still grating on the Core’s mind.

The ideas just wouldn't stop coming. The Core just wanted to put more and more stone onto the walls, yet how would such a thing help when the creatures being attacked by could simply chew down on it with ease? Sure, it would require hours of work by a single ant, yet ten could do it in a few minutes. There was nothing that could do what was needed.

It was impossible to protect the area when the [Wild] creatures already knew what was going on in the specific locations. The ants from the outside already knew about the place, lest they wouldn't have sent a group up to search. And since they had not returned, it was only a matter of time before more would come, depending on just how far away it was.

The Core needed to be ready for that moment. Spikes had already been created to impede the obvious way in. Yet… if the creatures were to see the corpses lying about, would they not see it as a warning sign and try to find an alternate way in?

Because there were still the corpses from the previous battle. The Core had done nothing to truly remove them, the last battle fought inside its sight having ended off with it simply waiting for such a long time that the body simply degraded itself into oblivion. While that technique could have been used this time as well, there was little chance that the other creatures had any desire to wait that long. No… it needed another solution.

One of the bodies was still inside the Core’s sight, having been dragged off to the side instead of all the way out. While it would have normally made the Entity a little annoyed, there was no such emotion at the current moment. It could be used for its benefit, after all.

Now… What ways were there to dispose of bodies? The first and prior answer was to wait for it to decay. That wasn't a good answer, though, since it was much too time-consuming. Also, it was beginning to rot the slightest bit, which was quite bad for the [Moss], so that was looked down at even more. Accelerating the process of decay was both impossible at the current moment and had similar problems to the earlier idea, so that was scrapped as well. Maybe… putting it a hole? Dig a few meters down, create a large hole and then just… dump all the corpses down there? While the Core liked that idea initially, it would simply divert where the rot would take place, and since alternative circulation would be required to make sure that the air didn't come back into the cavern the living creatures resided in, the [Wild] ants would still be able to pick up on the scent.

There needed to be another solution. The Core knew that there had to be. Looking back onto the way that the process normally happened, the Entity attempted to get more answers to the problem at hand. When a creature died, the first reaction was the burst of Mana getting released into the air. Since there was no sentient being keeping track of it all, nothing was stopping all the energy from simply slipping out. This left an empty husk of Matter to lie still until the organic parts simply decayed to the point of non-existence. Simple. While the Core would have loved to say it got an idea from that, its outlook on a solution was just as dark as-

Coal. Coal was the organic matter. It knew that from the start, since the composition was so much alike what the [Giant-Ants] were made of. However, there had been no issues surrounding one simple thing. Taking the energy away from the matter, and making it disintegrate because of it. Because the matter itself was also made of Mana, making it possible to take. It was not only the energy in the emptied containers that were within living beings. The living beings themselves could also be harvested for their energy.

The Core wasn't sure how it hadn't thought of it. The idea itself seemed so obvious, yet also foreign to it. Simply making bodies disappear instead of letting them rot? It was certainly a weird way to go about the process, but not one which the Entity would ever avoid. Testing it out for itself, the Core focused on the corpse that it had at hand. While it took a moment to get adjusted to it, nothing was stopping it when it began to remove the Mana.

Within seconds of funnelling out the energy, there was no hint that the body ever existed. It was a wonderful feeling, the Core knowing that it had found a solution t a problem that it could have spent hours on in a manner of minutes. Was it getting smarter or just more experienced. With time, it was thought that there might just have been a difference between the two. It certainly couldn't think of any other scenario where it wouldn't have been able to think of it. Reflecting on past experiences was just so ingrained into the Core’s problem-solving that it was clear that it would always go towards it as a method.

First opening up a bigger entrance into the outside world, the Core ordered a few of the ants to go out and grab the remaining courses and stack them away from the [Moss]. And now that it was on the thought of moving things around… it didn't make sense to have the plants right next to the entrance. It was better to simply have them in the back instead since that made the chance of them getting trampled much less. Ordering the remaining ants to get on that, it went back to the corpses.

Most were brought in within the first minute, the remaining taking a bit of time. Some of them had been hacked into smaller pieces, after all, and the ants were making sure they got every piece in. It was best not to leave obvious traces, after all.

The Core was not entirely comfortable with the large hole in the wall and was all too happy closing it down once again. And, with no lacking commitment, it put an extra half meter on the edges of the obvious entrance, changing it down gradually to the normal width after that. But, back to the corpses it went, ideas about creating more security left for after it had finished with the current tasks.

The actual number of corpses was hard to count. It wasn't that there were a lot of them or anything. It was just that the pieces were hard to figure out the source from. Some of the attacks must have been more… brutal than the Core remembered. Or maybe the ants had torn it up later on. There was no way to be sure. It just knew that all of them were destroyed within a minute, no real trace of them being there to start with. It was a good thing anyway. They were taking up too much space.

Looking around, everything seemed accounted for. The [Moss] had been moved around to stop them from getting trampled by intruders, the bodies had been taken care of to hinder any hesitation, and the walls had been set up to deter anybody from getting in easily. The Core supposed it wanted to do more of the latter, yet the limited size inside the space was already quite gith. With the walls nearly a meter thick, it was hard to think of them as good for space efficiency. While there was a longing to be on the safer safe, it would only impede movement. Perhaps when more Mana was gained or when the Moss started to pay for itself would it be a good idea until then, there was little else to do but wait around.

While testing, of course. And maybe the Core would even send out one or two of its ants. Actually… the latter did sound half-reasonable. With the place as protected as it was, the Core was relatively sure of its safety. And with the still being so much space outside that had gone unexplored, it would make sense for something to be explored no matter what. So, sending out two of the newer ants, the Core ordered them to attempt to find something. Yet, in that, there was another safety method. Every time they travelled ten meters outside the circle, they would have to come back around with the next accepted distance increasing by ten meters. It would allow the Core to somewhat gauge a distance if the creatures failed to come back at some point.

Sending them out, the response the first two times were quite quick. They would travel out, come back instantly, and repeat the process a few times. By the third return, the Core was relatively sure it could guess when it needed to pay attention. This then allowed it to go towards another subject it had been waiting on.

The replenishment of [Stamina]