I didn’t know how long it took me to finally be satisfied with my second Floor. Many times over the time I’d spent on the first. But since I hadn’t even had my first challenger yet, and I had my first Floor as a buffer, I felt safe enough to take my time. Most of the work was tweaking the look and feel of the space, rather than changing the base layout. I finished that almost right away. The staircase leads down into a main chamber which splits off in the other three directions. Each of the corridors had small rooms as off chutes, I figured for those who would have served in this place before it had become a tomb. Each of the three hallways eventually ended in a larger room, in which I placed a number of sarcophagi to house the Skeletons and Skeleton Archers. I sculpted furniture out of the stone I thought would suit the place. A table here, some chairs there. Beds in each of the small rooms. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure where this stuff was supposed to go, my instincts only helped so much, but I thought I was at least mostly right.

From there the three larger rooms had their own hallway connections to each other, though these hallways were smaller, and without any rooms apart from two. One for my Guardian, that one was the furthest away from the stairs, ensuring you had to go through at least two of my large rooms to reach it. And one underneath the staircase. I filled that one to the brim with sarcophagi, and even spawned in a bonus Rewards Chest. You’d still get one for clearing the Floor, but you could get a bonus one by clearing this room as well. I still didn’t feel comfortable enough to give out weapons just yet, but I also didn’t want to just keep using the same reward all the time, so I made the bonus one a Minerals Chest instead. If it turned out that those weren’t that valuable, my challengers wouldn’t have to tackle the room, since it wasn’t on the critical path.

Other than that I worked on artwork, carvings in the walls depicting what I thought were epic scenes. Mostly depicting skeletons, and many focusing on my Guardian as the hero. I spent some time carving runic messages as well, though they were mostly for confusion rather than having any purpose. After all this Floor wouldn’t have many traps in it, so I wanted to add something in the place of that.

Speaking of traps… I did make a few. Not many, and only ones that had to be triggered manually, either using mana or another more mundane triggering mechanism. That way my Skeletons wouldn’t accidentally activate them while nobody was here, since they were neither underwater nor could they fly.

I had some problems getting the instructions to stick. As it turned out, Skeletons were dumb. Apart from my Guardian, who’d been blessed with intelligence and an ability to plan, the rest were dumb as bones. Still, eventually I managed to make them figure out how to trigger an arrow trap, and when to do it as to not shoot it at themselves. There was no chance I’d get them to figure out the mana-activated ones. They only barely used mana as it was, and most of that was passive benefits from the system. They simply didn’t have the skill to manipulate mana outside of actual… well Skills. I had to leave those traps to my Guardian.

All in all it was a nice Floor. Six rooms all connected via hallways, three of which were trapped and three of which weren’t. Around two dozen base Skeletons and a dozen archers made up my creatures for the Floor, since apparently that was limited as well, just like the Floor size. I admitted it made sense, since otherwise a Dungeon could just never stop making creatures until the space was filled with them. Maybe they’d even spill over to the outside. That would be bad. So I understood the reason for the limit being there. It still rankled a bit to be left with some unused sarcophagi in my bonus room, but eventually I gave a mental shrug and just left it as it was. It didn’t matter that much, and maybe they’d serve as a form of bait or accidental trickery for those trying for the bonus.

I made some final adjustments to the staircase, then declared the Floor finished. I felt a shift as the mechanics of the system locked my designs into place. Strengthening the walls and borders beyond anything I could have made myself. This strengthening was how a Dungeon could avoid having people just break through the stone and go to the Core room directly, and was also the reason changing the layout of a Floor was so difficult after it was done. As tradeoffs go, it was well worth it.

Floor finished!

Experience Gained…

Level Up!

[1 New Dungeon Perk Available]!

Skill [Swift Descent] available]!

Alright, now we’re talking.

I’d been keeping track of my experience doing my excavations and summonings, and neither did much at all for my progress. I had gotten some from summoning my Guardians, but the rest was mere chump change. It seemed most of my leveling would come from finishing a Floor. It made sense. After all, making more and more Floors was what I was supposed to do. Though something told me it wouldn’t be so simple as just making one new Floor for every level. Pretty soon I’d need more, and maybe it already had, considering my new experience requirements. Unless something changed when I’d attracted any Challengers. Oh I could hardly wait. I was so curious to see what people would think of my Floors.

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.

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No use sitting around. Might as well get started on Floor 3! [Swift Descent] activate!

I felt the same faint blurring of my surroundings, and a buzzing to my senses, as I rapidly began claiming the rock beneath my Core. It didn’t feel as overwhelming as last time, and I was able to keep a faint mental awareness of the differences in material and environment as I descended, so that when I stopped it didn’t come with the same abruptness and confusion that had happened the first time. This time I was also paying attention to my Status, and noticed the prompt when it first appeared.

Third Floor begun, would you like to select a Guardian?

I hesitated as I was about to accept it. Did I want to select a Guardian right away? If I didn’t I’d be able to mold this new Floor to an aesthetic, like last time. The problem was that I didn’t have any major inspirations for what the third Floor should be. With the second I’d had a clear image in mind of what I wanted. But now, while I had several ideas, none of them stood out compared to any other. Maybe picking a Guardian would give me the inspiration I needed? If nothing else I felt like I should know how both the aesthetic and normal way of creating a Floor worked. That way I’d know which I preferred in the future.

With that thought I made my decision, and accepted the prompt.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Third floor begun! Select A Guardian

Vampiric Gargoyle: A creature made from blood and stone, that is not alive yet feeds on the living. The Vampiric Gargoyle is a sturdy creature, often used as protectors by Vampire Lords for their ability to survive prolonged engagements without permanent damage, even against the strongest of foes.

Sunfire Eye: An elemental of light and fire, who burns through lies and reveals truth. Sunfire Eyes are the justices of the Firelight Realm, employed for their reasoning, intellect, and magical prowess. Some even shift into the material plane, when particularly difficult judgements need to be made.

Shadowborn Wraith: A being of anger and darkness. Of revenge and anguish. The Shadowborn Wraith is the tragic spirit of a soul drenched in the blackness of betrayal. A creature feared and despised by most, that revels in the torment of the living.

Greenscale Naga: A Greenscale Naga appears to be a solitary creature when observed. They make their home in underwater caverns, and only meet in person when absolutely necessary due to their racial ability of telepathic communication. Being adept Arcane mages and fearsome fighters, they are not to be trifled with on land. Many never even try to engage with them underneath the waves.

I studied my options for several minutes, pondering on what I would want for my third Floor, and searching for inspiration. First and foremost the [Shadowborn Wraith] was out right away. It was much too outright vile for what I wanted my Dungeon to be. Sure I would have danger, and even death, but the Wraith was too hungry for it. Instead of to challenge, it just sought to hurt and kill for its own sake. That wasn’t me.

Going down from three was trickier. I thought about what type of Floor I wanted. The first was emulating a natural cave, focusing on traps and unseen danger. The second focused on evoking the feeling of uncovering something old and forgotten, with the danger being more organized and tactical. For the third I wanted something different from either. Not the instinctive naturalistic creatures of the first Floor, but not the organized squads of the second either. Also there was the Guardian itself. My second Guardian had been a spellcaster, so I’d prefer it if my third was something else. That way each Guardian would require a different type of strategy to defeat them. I had a stealthy ambusher and a tactical spellcaster. What I wanted for the third was more of a frontline fighter. A wall that stood between the challengers and the rest of my dungeon. That felt right. Which meant there was only really one choice. The [Vampiric Gargoyle] it was. It also helped me figure out what Floor to make.

A gauntlet. A trial of endurance and perservearance.

The challengers would have to contend with the Guardian, who would then leave to recover while my normal creatures attacked. Once the gargoyle had recovered a bit, it would jump back into the fray. Rinse and repeat until the challengers make it to the end of the gauntlet. For the design I started with a hexagonal cave, then I made the floor appear constructed, and raised up walls around the edges. On the far end I made stairs leading directly up to the cavern wall, where I placed a door and made a small room for the way further down. The wall itself I carved to have the appearance of a castle, with tall towers and parapets for my Guardian to sit on. I then connected the walls to the castle to create a sort of courtyard, and placed openable grates in each wall leading to smaller rooms. These sub chambers would hold my creatures, and the Guardian could utilize its ability to fly to escape to the parapets.

The Floor itself would be rather small, but that wasn’t that bad. I could exchange the leftover Floorspace for additional creatures to really hone in on the theme of a constant battle.

I frowned mentally… When had I realized I could exchange Floorspace for more creature slots? And how did it make sense that a smaller Floor could have more creatures placed in it? The seeming lack of logic bothered me, so I searched my mind until I found an answer. It turned out that not only was there a maximum Floor size, but a minimum one as well. Only once that had been reached, could a Dungeon decide between adding more creatures or having additional Floorspace.

I sighed. It made some sense, but it annoyed me to no end that I hadn’t realized this earlier. If I had known I could have tweaked the mausoleum to make all the creatures I wanted fit… I’d need to pay more careful attention to these instincts. It was knowledge I didn’t know I had until I thought about it, so unless I really thought about a problem or question an answer would never reveal itself. I made a note to make sure to really think through if there was anything else I wanted, or something I was curious about that might change, before finalizing this third Floor.

The minimum size limit was a bit annoying, as it was about half again as much as the plan I’d made for the Floor. In the end I just made the castle larger by making the roof higher and adding more fake towers and spires. Now the cavern was almost thirty meters high, more than halfway back up to the second Floor. But with the System enhancements to structural integrity, I wasn’t worried. With the layout done it was time to populate it.

Thinking of it, I should check which new ones the Gargoyle gave me…

Oh, there were three of them! The [Stone Gargoyle], the [Stone Thrall], and [Blooddrinker Lichen].

The Gargoyle seemed to be a smaller version of my Guardian, though without many of the abilities that came from its ‘Vampiric’ prefix. Nevertheless they were solid fighters with high defenses and surprising mobility due to their ability to fly.

The Thralls were… slow. Slow, lumbering, humanoids of rock with very little in the form of thinking or planning. They were difficult to kill, and didn’t have the capacity to run low on stamina, so they weren’t quite as disappointing as their Attributes first made them appear. In addition they took up much less of my creature budget per Thrall than the gargoyles did. Exactly how much was difficult to tell, as the cost of each creature was affected by all of the current creatures already on the Floor, but a ballpark would put them at three Thralls to one Gargoyle. Which made the comparison much more favorable, though the gargoyle might still win in a direct confrontation. That didn’t matter so much though, since their main purpose would be to delay and drain the resources of the challengers, not outright defeat them.

The Lichen was something entirely new. For one it was a plant, which I’d never been given before. Though it still had a form of intelligence, in fact about on the same level as the Thrall. Still without an ability to move around it was lacking in proactive strategy. What it could do however was release spores which drained the stamina of those who breathed them in, while encouraging the act of laying down atop the Lichen. Once asleep the Lichen could then insert itself into the creature's bloodstream and feed off of their life force.

That last part was a bit disconcerting, as I didn’t particularly like the vibe that would give my dungeon, but the stamina drain was exactly what I wanted. I would have to place the Lichen so that it would be difficult to lay down on top of, but where its spores could still reach the battlefield. On top of the courtyard walls and the parapets were the obvious candidates. And since both my Gargoyles and my Thralls were immune to the stuff, the gated subrooms could also be filled with the stuff, provided the spores could reach that far. I’d have to test and see to be sure. First and foremost though, was summoning my Guardian itself. I waited until my mana reserves were full, then activated the summoning. The creature was much larger than my other two bosses, standing at almost three meters tall and powerfully built, the stone construct gave off an imposing air. It flexed its wings and arms, which moved surprisingly smoothly for being made of stone, before growling a greeting towards me.

I greet the Lord. It sent, and though it was the same telepathy that Stalker had used, the feeling, or sound, of their message was completely different. Where Stalker had been a chorus of musical tones, this was words. Gruff words that felt like the speaker was grating stone, but still words. It was neat that even telepathically that kind of personality still remained between my Guardians. I sent it an approving greeting and told it to familiarize itself with its domain. It bowed and flew off, and I waited for my mana to recover before naming it. I did not want a repeat of what happened last time. Luckily my regeneration was fast, so I didn’t have to wait long for it to refill even after spending it all. I was about to name my newest Guardian when a faint tingling sensation gave me pause. This felt… strange. What was going on? It felt like I was being watched, yet at the same time… more.

A message from Stalker immediately gave me clarity of the situation, and I instantly focused all my attention on my first Floor.

I had been discovered.