Valterra barely gave a thought to his spider’s successful hunt and the subsequent Schema though he did think to send a hint of satisfaction to the creature so that it would continue the good work. The number of Schema he had at his disposal was rising but it wouldn’t do him much good if he didn’t fix his floors.

He dived deeper into his Dungeon Sense, getting a feel for his newly grown body. He had taken the whole cabin and made it his but there were too many sensations that clamored for his attention. Similar to when he had claimed the basement he knew that things were slipping through the cracks but he couldn’t focus on it all directly due to the overwhelming amount of Aether that his Core was now drawing in.

Valterra could feel the building and its construction. It was built solid and immovable, anchored into the earth through its foundations. Pinpoint sensations of carved sigils were also present and each one burned pleasantly in the background.

He could feel them take in his Aether and do…something, but he wasn’t sure what. His instincts weren’t screaming at him so he left them alone. They had been created by Calamvor so Valterra figured they would be safe enough for him to keep and would perhaps prove to be beneficial.

He figured he would start with the outside and make his way in and by doing so he would make a fortress for himself and his creatures. He expanded the boundaries of the Third floor to include everything under the porch around the entirety of the building. His experiment with the rats had shown him that creatures could remain within his Floors and not be claimed so he figured it would be all right.

Ironically it was his memories of Calamvor’s life that gave him his next idea instead of his instincts. Calamvor had delved into Dungeons before and each one had guardians that oversaw a Floor. Some of those guardians weren’t stuck guarding the entrance deeper in and instead roamed about to deal with any Delvers as they saw fit. Valterra figured his newly evolved snake guardian would prefer to do that rather than remain stationary.

Using his Aether Valterra dug new holes into the walls of the cabin to provide new entrances to his Dungeon. He knew it was probably a silly idea but he also thought it would work extremely well. For a normal Dungeon, he knew from Calamvor’s memories that it was often a giant hole in the ground and led ever deeper.

Valterra, on the other hand, had a whole building and if invaders didn’t know where his Core was then they would have to choose a hole and stick with it. Valterra chose to hide within a Dungeon edifice with a labyrinth of choices between himself and any who might come to claim or destroy him.

Using another idea from Calamvor, he created little fortresses in a half circle around the holes. He then populated those fortresses with mice while he populated the outside with snakes, spiders, mantises, and his new beetles. He gave them the same orders. Fight and evolve by whatever means necessary to protect the Dungeon.

With that major project done he turned inward. He still had plenty of Aether but his main goal had been to create more “mouths”. In a normal Dungeon, he figured they would grow ever deeper rather than up or to the side, digging down and down and down.

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Each Floor would be followed by the next and as creatures evolved they would move ever downward where the Aether got thicker. Dungeons would breathe in the Aether through their entrance and it would all flow steadily down being absorbed by the Monsters and environments until finally reaching the Core.

As he was right now, Valterra was only getting Aether through one entrance and it almost immediately collided with his Core since it was still on the First Floor. He had the body of a bigger Dungeon without all of the Floors in direct succession.

Using his new entrances he tried directing his “breathing” to include them. It was hard since his instincts really didn’t like the idea but eventually, he felt an almost audible click and Aether began being drawn through each entrance at the same time.

It flooded into his Dungeon and he heard a phantom chime that filled him with excitement. It seemed that his ingenuity had brought him closer to evolving and he hadn’t even started on his Fifth Floor.

Continuing on his remodeling streak he shifted the boundaries of his First Floor to include all of the open space between the inner and outer walls as well as all the fortresses crewed by mice. He created additional caverns similar to his first at each corner intersection of the building and populated them with mice as well.

He then turned to his Second Floor and expanded it to include all of the wood of the inside walls from the foundation to the ceiling. He then planted three new colonies of Danians, setting them at least two or three walls away from each other so that they could grow in peace before encountering invaders or the other Danians. He knew the separate colonies would most likely fight if they ever came into contact and although he didn’t want his creatures to die he was resigned to the fact that his Core needed to be protected.

Finally, he directed his attention to his Aether and watched how it moved through his territory. With his new way of breathing, he could feel the difference in how the Second Floor received Aether but his Fourth Floor was still lacking.

In each of his corner caverns, he drilled a large tunnel that led down to the Fourth Floor. Shifting his Aether further he directed it down the tunnels and through the entirety of the Fourth Floor before directing the excess up the basement stairs where it spilled into what had been the kitchen.

Not quite done yet he shifted material around and built a massive spire of rock right in the middle of what had been the living room since it was central to the rest of his Dungeon. He continued controlling the rock till it formed a massive column right to the ceiling. With that done he repeated the creation of his Aether funnel but magnified and internal with caverns crafted inside the column to hold the pools of Aether that would inevitably drip lower.

He then repeated the feat in the basement and formed another column that went all until it hit the limit of his body. The successive caverns in the column gained in size until the base cavern was around two feet in diameter. It was there that he fashioned a final small pedestal within the final pool.

Now all he needed to do was move his Core to the Column and he would have a ready-built funnel and be prepared to craft his new Floors in safety. He would be ready for anything or anyone that would seek to claim his Core.

It felt strange and uncomfortable but he successfully moved his Core to its new home. He directed the excess Aether in the kitchen to make its way to the top of the funnel where it once again began to form an Aether storm before being absorbed into the funnel. Only after that was done did he turn and check his notifications.

End of Chapter Notifications:

Multiple Entrances Created!

The Core has created multiple entrances that have direct access to the Core. Aether absorption has been diversified to include every entrance.

Progress to Core Evolution:

60%