I weave in and out of the attacks of two tusked bears. Their claws catch the air in front of me with explosive sounds as I jump out of their way. One bear falls with its face blown open by a ball of web, while the other dodges an incoming attack from my spiders.

While the bear is distracted by my golems, I rush in and grab the bear by the neck, making it roar in pain as Arachea pierces its skull with its legs! It drops to the ground, lifeless. I can feel Arachea's bloodlust as it snarls at the bear at my feet. A long sigh escapes me as I look around at the carnage. Pieces of my golems are strewn about the rocky ground. Seven dead tusked bears, which includes the one from earlier with the kids.

Five destroyed spider golems. Various bits of damage on the survivors. Arachea's even missing two legs. Compared to the battle with the dungeoneers and mercs, this was a lot harder. Even with my golems working together, they still struggled to handle the bears' strength. It's a bit annoying that they were so close to my territory. I can't help but wonder if there are other monsters in these caverns.

I head back to the ruined city with my spiders and owl following behind me. It's better to restock on mana than to risk exploring any further at this point. I can't help but chuckle as I glance behind me. It's quite comical to see my spiders dragging the corpses behind them in a net made of their webbing. Arachea lets me know it wants to have its legs fixed as soon as we return to the dungeon. Ah, now that's something I hadn't considered. Does the spawner have a repair function? I don't remember seeing that. Well, I've got a few resources now from the ruins, so I should be able to find something they can use to make repairs. The problem is how long it'll take to restore them. I'll just have to see what happens.

I'm beginning to realize that I'm going to need a lot more mana for my Avatar body than I was expecting. Even this short excursion has almost entirely drained me. My Avatar wouldn't last a round trip to the village, or the outpost. Well, it's not like I have any choice but to continue gathering more mana. My gaze moves down to my core resting just below my ribs. It's kind of annoying how my core can't receive the mana from my dungeon body unless it's inside of it.

I feel my owl stirring on my shoulder as we reach my boundaries. Clearly, it feels happy to be home. The little golem was pretty helpful today. It even managed to help me avoid some attacks and distract the monsters. But it's clear I'm severely lacking in battle-specialized golems. Hopefully, my next growth will unlock some new toys to fill in that gap. I heave a sigh of relief as I step through the invisible boundary line, it feels much more comfortable in here.

Mana created by my managenerator gem nodes immediately floods my core, and it begins to feel warm. Oh? I check my status screen, and my reserves have finally filled up. A warning on the screen is urging me to refine and purge it. Well, I guess that means that I'm ready to grow then? I knew it was coming soon, but this is faster than I thought. Either that or I lost track of time watching through my owls and taking care of the kids. I rush to park my avatar in its charging pod before I accept the process through my interface.

[Mana Refinement has begun.]

[Please wait while your mana is refined.]

It takes only a few seconds, but I can feel a strange sense of discomfort as my core heats up further. It feels like my core is being stretched thin as it tries to contain the boiling mana. The mana feels like it thickens as if it's turning from a gas to a liquid. It's heavier somehow. Hmm, I guess this is what it means to refine mana

[Mana Refinement complete. Continuing with the Purge.]

My core begins to feel cold, and the mana in it starts to swirl as the pressure increases. Ugh, this hurts!

I feel my consciousness slipping away, and I try to fight it. However, the pressure is too much, and my consciousness fades as my mind collapses. Before I pass out, I feel my Avatar's body convulse as the mana stored in my core rushes out!

***

My eyes shoot open, and I stare at the sleek metal of the hidden door in front of me. My breath comes in short gasps as I try to figure out what's happening. Ugh. I don't understand. It was so sudden. Was it because of the mana I refined earlier? The Purge? Was it trying to remove something?

I can't help but frown as my thoughts turn to my past. I've felt like this before. It was a similar sensation to this one. I remember now, the day I first expanded my reach. My refined mana was purged to seep into the area outside of my territory. The refined mana carries my consciousness, my imprint, turning the new area into a part of my body. There's a face. A man. But as I try to recall the details of his features, the memory slips away from me. My mind is overwhelmed with a sense of emptiness. I've forgotten everything. Everything that was supposed to matter.

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"Aria," I whisper as I try to calm down.

Wait. Who is Aria?

I shake my head. I shouldn't be worrying about something as trivial as this. It's just a name. Why do I care about something as unimportant as that? Ugh. I can't focus. I've forgotten so much. I can feel it! What is this feeling of emptiness? Why do I feel compelled to look for people I don't remember? Not even their names. I just remember there used to be companions, or friends that I felt attached to. I shake my head to try and focus on something else.

I need to think about the future. I can't let these things distract me.

I take a few deep breaths and calm my mind. As I push those memories and thoughts to the back of my mind, I focus on trying to feel any changes to my Dungeon body.

[Mana Permeation and Integration Complete. Floor 2 permissions are now unlocked.]

Oh. Looks like my mana has finished doing its thing.

My dungeon body has grown considerably. Well, maybe I should be thinking of it as annexing territory. That seems more accurate than describing it as growing. Anyway, it seems I've annexed the rest of the ruins. My borders now reach where the ruins turn into caverns, which is quite a sizeable expansion.

It takes me a few minutes to adjust to the new territory before I can feel what it contains. It's mostly empty buildings that haven't done too well with the passage of time. However, I can feel a few hidden rooms dotted around inside two of the buildings. One of the hidden rooms contains a new spawner that needs to be repaired, while another seems to contain a hidden workshop. The other hidden rooms are empty, and there's no telling what they were once used for.

I'm a bit more interested in the workshop than the spawner at the moment, but there's something else I should check first. My stats!

Dungeon Interface:

- Core Integrity: 100/100

- Mana: 100/200

- Reserves: 0/100

- Expand/Collapse

Well, that's something. The amount of mana I can have at my disposal has doubled, but so has the reserves needed for another growth spurt. I'm a bit surprised that my core hasn't become tougher, since its integrity values have remained the same. Is it even possible for it to be strengthened?

At least I have plenty of space for new managenerator nodes. But, it's bothering me that the new territory feels so empty. Though, it is interesting to note there seems to be more levels to these ruins below me. Since I've detected a few blocked staircases inside my new boundaries. I quickly check on my owls keeping an eye on the outpost, but nothing interesting has happened over there yet.

Hmm, it appears I was unconscious for quite a bit of time. Athena and the first group of owls have already been back to my body, and are currently returning to the outpost to relieve the second team. It's quite concerning to have been unconscious for that amount of time. I'll need to make sure not to go through with another growth if I'm expecting visitors.

Now, let's take a closer look at that workshop. My attention moves to that hidden room and zooms in to give me a clear look at it. It's small and seems to be carved out of stone, with a dirt floor and no windows. The walls and ceiling have been reinforced with metal plating. That's strange. It's so different from the entirely metal structures of everything else. There must be some sort of reason for it.

I take a quick look at the worktops, decorated with instruments that seem designed to work with different materials. My attention moves to the door in the corner of the room. Hmm, why can't I detect a room beyond it? It's locked, but I should be able to open it from here with my interface. As the lock clicks, I feel a wave of power wash over me. It feels like there is a powerful barrier sealing this room off from the rest of my dungeon. I have a feeling that whatever is in here is not for me to touch. At least, not yet.

I can't help but frown as I try to imagine what this room is for. But nothing comes to mind. I give up on playing the guessing game and decide to use my interface to see if it can give me any more information. I'm a bit disappointed by the results.

Dungeon Interface:

-Basic Enchanting Workshop

-No Enchantment Designs Detected

-Submit New Enchantment Design? Y/N

Great. A workshop I can't use! I have no idea where to start with enchantments! I'm guessing I'll have to manually succeed at an enchantment before I can submit it. But where should I even start with that kind of thing? I put a pin in the workshop for now, and turn my attention to the broken spawner. I toss the 100 points of mana it needs for the repairs at it as I sit back and wait.

Oh, Arachea is mentally nudging me, conveying its question of when I'll take care of their repairs! I knew I forgot something! Sorry! I'll take a look at our options regarding that now. The first, and only place, I can think of where those options may appear is the spider golem spawner. Although there was no option for it before, it's there now. I wonder if that's because it can somehow detect any damage done to them? If so, that's quite a handy feature!

Dungeon Interface:

-Type: Spider Golem Assembly Unit

-Used For: Creation of Spider Golems, Minion of Core Adam Ark.

-Notes: The Spider Golem's metal body has been reinforced with mana-infused materials, creating tougher golems.

-Resiliency: 15

-Movement Speed: 6

-Mana Capacity: 50

-Weapon: Sharp Legs, Mana Infused Webbing (Various Varieties), Multitool Arm

-Passive Effect: Senses are enhanced. Can detect life energy from up to 82 feet away.

-Special Ability: Can spin a sticky web with a firing range of 33 feet.

-Construction Cost: 100 points of mana per 20 Units

-Repair Cost: 20 points of mana per Unit

Hmm, it's going to be a bit costly to repair them all, but it has to be done. I just have to wait until I gain more mana from my nodes. It's quite interesting that the name of the spawner has changed from automatons to golems and shows more information now. Is that because of the change in how I think of them? Though, I assume the extra information became available because of my recent growth.

Ah, the new spawner is repaired now! Let's see what new toy I can make!