"Did he... What did Grix say?" Eraina gasps, her eyes wide with shock.

I can't help but clench my fist as I watch Paul's expression change to a calm, yet firm one. I can't believe it! What the hell did I miss while they were in the outpost? I have to admit, the situation isn't looking too good. Paul lets out a sigh as he glances at Eraina before averting his gaze.

"What is it, Paul?" Nana asks, breaking the silence that followed Eraina's question.

Paul hesitates, and his gaze moves to a large portrait of a bearded man hanging from the wall, before finally answering the question.

"It seems that Grix has already filed a report and sent it ahead to Lord Stillwater. The dungeoneers have claimed the exploration of the ruins as their job to lead." Paul shakes his head. "You can take a look at Grix's report yourself."

I can feel Eraina's body tense up as Paul gestures to the yellowed envelope on the stone table. The people at the table with her shift uncomfortably.

"But, how?" Eraina whispers. "I don't understand."

I read the report in her hands through my owl as she nervously shifts through the pages. This is bad. It seems Grix is stating my ruins and golems are part of a dungeon, and he's requesting more dungeoneers and some of the Lord's troops to explore me. The only thing I don't understand is why he'd take the risk of proclaiming I'm a dungeon when he doesn't have any solid evidence. It would do massive damage to his reputation if his claims were to be proven false. I'm confident there's no way he saw me when I engaged Tharin and dragged him back to the altar room.

As Eraina flips to the last page, I get my answer. Seriously! He's willing to bet it all on that?

"As for that owl on your shoulder..." Paul says before snapping his fingers.

Crack!

Ah! What the hell? I've just lost all contact with my owl! What the hell did he do? Now I have no way of knowing what is happening in that old guy's manor!

Dammit! To think, Grix picked up on my dungeon mana signature! I know Eraina warned me it was a possibility, but he didn't seem to notice when he was here. Did he figure it out later?

How long do I have? This, Lord Stillwater, is sure to grasp at this small chance from what I understand of him. I've got no choice, I'll have to get those warrior golems online. Arachea gives me a mental nudge, and I turn my attention to the altar room. My golems seem to have sensed my distress and gathered around the altar, silently awaiting new orders. Ok, I get it. Don't dwell on it, just work to contain the damage that's heading this way.

Ok, what needs to happen first? Well, that's obvious, I need materials! Arachea, take half of the spiders and start collecting wood by cutting down trees outside the caverns. The other half can start collecting rock from the caverns' walls. That'll give me two different types to work with to see what gets the best results. I have a sneaking suspicion it will be the rock, but I assume that'll be harder to collect due to its nature. So, that means I can use the wooden ones as fodder and the stone ones as heavy infantry. With my spiders and owls being elites.

Arachea is mentally assuring me that it's on top of it, but I feel it needs some kind of goal or order to work under. I guess that makes sense since I've never seen it take the initiative to give an order of its own to any of the spiders. I've been too busy focusing on other things lately, so maybe I should pay more attention to them. Hmm, maybe because the spiders are golems, they don't have any curiosity to advance in any way as they would otherwise?

As I watch my spiders hurry to complete their tasks, I start trying to figure out what I should do next that could help my current situation. Hmm, I should probably expand my area of surveillance to watch out for those reinforcements Grix requested. That seems like a good plan. Once they're spotted, it'll let me know I'm running out of time to prepare. Ok, owls, I know you heard my thoughts so get to work! Right, that's another thing taken care of.

I can see the owls swarming over the outpost to fly over to the village in the distance, and my owls see the wall there being reinforced. They've clearly decided to take action after Sir Manford destroyed my golem. Perhaps he's afraid I'll launch an assault first? That's a reasonable assumption since it's been proven my golems can reach that far. But that's only true for my owls. I doubt my spiders could cover the same distance since they'd have to go around the horrible terrain between here and there. I should probably start working on some terrain advantage within myself, right?

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

That'll cost a fair bit of mana, but it'll take some time for my golems to gather the necessary materials for the warrior versions anyway. So there's no harm in doing this part now. The question is, what should I do with my dungeon body? I suppose I could've excavated rock from under the solid parts of the ruins, but that would make their foundation unstable. That's not something I want to mess with until I grow some more and understand what's underneath me.

I consider using mana to alter the outside of the ruins to get some advantage over my enemies, but that will be noticed and would likely put any invaders on alert. But, well, does that even matter now? I doubt I can take them by surprise since they'll be coming here on the assumption I'm a dungeon anyway. So, there's nothing to lose when I think about it. Even if Grix does still have some doubts, I'm sure a second visit will clear those away. Alright, I've made up my mind. It's better to put something up that'll at least slow them down.

As the mana begins to swirl around inside me, my senses expand and cover the entire area I want to change. I make sure to keep a close watch on the mana flow in case there are any issues, but it all seems fine. The mana is starting to seep into the ground, changing the solid stone of the ground between the outer ruin buildings to soft dirt as I spread it out. That's it, now I just need to harden that earth into stone once it's coated with more mana.

Hmm, that surprisingly cost me far less mana than I expected. Have I just gained better control over my mana since I grew? Just thinking of the possible reasons behind it gives me a headache. That's something to figure out when I have less pressing matters to deal with. I guess the next step should be to fill in the wrecked metal walls, open windows, and doorways with more stone to create a single smooth wall. My mana flows smoothly, like a gentle river as I further modify the outer rim of my boundaries. Yeah, that looks pretty good. The metal sections mixed with the stone looks a bit weird, but if it makes those sections harder to breach then I can't complain.

Ah, I forgot a gate! How are my golems going to get through without one? Hmm. That spot should do. A section between two large metal buildings indents itself in an archway shape, packing the rock harder together. I make sure to add strong, stone hinges and divide the stone inside the archway in two. It feels pretty sturdy to my senses, and it doesn't seem to have created a weak point in the wall as you would usually get from having a gate.

I was worried that the wall was a bit thin, but it's got plenty of stone packed in there, so I doubt a dungeoneer would be able to just shove their way through. Of course, it's possible there's magic out there that could penetrate it, and if they were to bombard the walls with something explosive then it would come crashing down. But it should slow down anyone trying to rush in.

Hmm, I feel like the wall is missing something. What were those things called? Parapets! That's it! Let's add those to the top of the wall and make it wider up there too! Ah, I'll need stairs to get up there too! That'll let my spiders and future warrior golems defend the wall from above. My mana is still flowing smoothly as I make those adjustments. There, that should do it.

The wall I've made is much higher than any of the buildings within me, but the extra stone will serve as an excellent defense against anything trying to break through the wall. I turn my attention to the streets and alleys between the ruined buildings. I really should do something with them as well. Perhaps turning it into a maze would work? With the building holding my avatar and core at the center. Yeah, that'll help slow down and frustrate any invaders.

Oh, I'm feeling kind of dizzy. Ah, my mana is running low. Guess I'll have to wait a bit before I can start with the maze plans. I guess I got a bit too carried away. Is there anything I can do while I wait? Hmm, what about that workshop? It's probably worth looking into it a bit. Maybe I can use it to come up with new designs for the spawners? Though, I'm still unsure how that will work. Ok, time to see what I can figure out about enchantments! It's probably better if I try it with my avatar body. Get a real feel for it, you know?

I move my avatar over to the hidden room, feeling much better than before as I enter it. My gaze moves over the stonework. It's so plain in here. I don't like it! The metal plating on the walls is really bland, and the door feels like it's just there as a means to block out the rest of the dungeon.

It's not just that, but there's also an awful smell. Ah, right. It must be from the corpses of the tusked bears. I can see the stains from them being butchered on the walls, and I'm not even going to get started on the mess they left on the floor.

I walk through the workshop and up to the door in the corner, my mind conjuring up images of what could possibly be hidden beyond the barrier. Maybe I'll be able to see something with this body. I focus on the barrier behind the door as my hand presses against it.

[Access Denied.]

Huh? Ok, that's weird. I thought my dungeon core being here would have been able to override the barrier. I guess I'm going to have to find a way to break that barrier, eventually. But it won't be that easy. It seems pretty well made. Let's think about it more carefully. The room beyond is sealed using a mana barrier, which means it's probably not strong enough on its own. It can't be if it's something made with just mana. But that means there must be some other power behind it. There would have to be enchantments at the very least. But, what's powering it? It could be that there's a power source inside the room.

I let out a sigh as I rub the back of my head. Unfortunately, I can't get any more information than that. The room beyond the barrier is pitch black, so even with my Avatar's eyes, I'm still no closer to solving its mystery. Well, I was just testing it on a whim while I'm here anyway. I push the strange room to the back of my mind as I study the workshop. Ok, let's see what I can do with you.