Chapter 160 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

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Had some technical problems but finally got them fixed.

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It hadn’t been long since I finished expanding the 26th floor. My work was interrupted by bug guy. He had been incredibly busy helping set up the Academy because of all the changes we needed to do thanks to the knowledge he brought.

He was now helping out with our guild. In doing so, he once again started to fight inside the dungeon, and with his healed body, it didn't take long for him to reach gold rank.

Currently, he was in meditation inside his own mind, figuring out his talent. The space inside a person, but not just a person—every creature, plant, and even some inanimate objects like rocks had this space.

They just needed a little bit of mana. For those who didn’t have a true mind, as they absorbed more mana, this space sort of acted like a spark, which made it possible for rocks, for example, to start changing their properties.

For plants, it sort of acted like a more central brain; otherwise, their consciousness was too spread out to make any cohesive choices besides their responses to damage. There were a few exceptions to that, but perhaps they were already plants that had changed before I got their patterns.

Creatures often didn't know what to do with this space, but the ones intelligent enough to figure it out would become true terrors, and many of the more monstrous species started out from a normal individual of another species.

Whatever this mind space is, it's not natural. Over the years, I’ve done quite a few experiments. Since it's easiest to observe this mind space in creatures, I focused my experiments on them. If a creature doesn’t have mana at all or a really low amount, it doesn't get this space. But that's really hard to do, like ridiculously hard, as mana likes living things.

Even if a creature has mana and enough of it, it doesn’t instantly get this mind space. There are only two ways to get it: they come into contact with something that has it, there's like a trigger event, like an infection of some sort.

The other way is a lot more curious: completely isolated with no contact whatsoever, it happens on the 1st of every month exactly when the sun rises. Now I know that it isn’t connected to the sun, but whatever comes, comes from down below.

It's so faint that I barely detected it, and the only way I figured it out was thanks to me running this experiment at different heights and the few milliseconds difference from the ones getting it deeper down.

What I’m certain of is that civilization has no control over this, and I think the calendar is the way it is because of this effect. I kinda wish we could get this information-gathering operation rolling a bit faster, but secrecy is paramount.

Finally, I noticed the bug guy moving again, and he had a stupid grin on his face. My mouthpiece walked closer to him. "I assume you got something good?" I asked him. He simply looked towards me, and a moment later his clothing was torn apart as he changed into a giant ant, the exact species the healer who helped him was.

From the movements, I could see he was clumsy, but the antennae twitched from his excitement. It was amusing. He finally figured out that he couldn’t properly communicate.

I knew that if he had enough time, he could learn to communicate properly with his new body, but it will take time. Eventually, he will also figure out how to change without destroying his clothes. The only reason I knew that was from other shape-shifters who were in my dungeon.

Eventually, he changed back. "Don't be embarrassed; you will learn how to communicate in that form. You will also learn how to not destroy your clothes."

It was then that he figured out that he was actually naked. It was strange how he scrambled to get new clothing on. Didn’t he realize that it was easy enough for me to see through clothing or that I could literally monitor him 24/7?

"Sorry about that. I was simply so excited, but this wasn't all I got. I have another shape that I can store, and when I continue to rank up, I will be able to get even more shape slots." Now that surprised even me.

That was something I didn’t know was possible. Damn it, there were so many good talents that the adventurers had but I had no way of getting. It was so much better when creatures got talents because those I could give to others.

Of course, there were quite a lot of limitations and multiple talents had a huge problem. If I tried to give them to other patterns, they would simply explode. There was one exception, one of the most overpowered talents I knew about. No other pattern had been able to survive. It was that ridiculous human who could absorb other creatures' features and make them his own.

We still had that strange connection. I think he will try to follow it soon as he was once again kicked out of his newest community when they found out what he could do. No matter who you were, you were scared of something you didn't understand and someone who was so much more powerful than you. If he finally decides to follow this connection, he will find a gateway, but before that, I will not contact him. Everyone deserved their own choices.

"So I guess you would need a second bug form, or can you do it with any other creature as well?" I asked the bug guy.

"No, it has to be a bug. I do not know a good choice. I cannot change the size of the bug, at least not right now, perhaps in the future, but every other choice is too small for a combatant. Although this ant form should be perfect for it, perhaps a small form for reconnaissance and spy work is called for."

"Perhaps, but I do not know how applicable you would be here, and if you were killed while changed, would you die or be changed back? None of the others who could change have died, so I do not know the answer to that. Perhaps a bug that's bigger and a lot more defensive?" He was thoughtful, but I thought of another question, so I asked, "Can you change the species you have stored?"

It took him a while to answer as he was concentrating on himself. "I believe so. What sort of bug do you have in mind? Is it bigger than the ant form?" I simply chuckled at that. "Follow me."

It took us quite a while and going through multiple gateways before we reached our destination. We were currently on my core floor in a room that was meant for one of my champions to relax.

The bug guy was on his knees as he looked at the massive beetle eating large earthworms. Every once in a while, he would try to speak, but he could barely get a few letters out before he went silent. "He is magnificent, isn't he?" I asked him, and he immediately nodded. When the beetle was done with his current treat, he finally came and greeted us.

I made my mouthpiece scratch his horn, and he seemed to enjoy it. The bug guy slowly did the same, but eventually, he said in defeat, "He's too powerful for me to make into one of my shapes. But where are we?" he asked after he explained his problem. I did not answer his question.

This particular pattern was upgraded to the latest version. It was a bit difficult to keep the monster's experiences and the newer pattern's experiences, but I was able to in the end combine them to result in an even more dangerous champion.

"Let us soon return, I will have a few weaker versions waiting for you." He still spent another hour with this champion, and the champion itself enjoyed the praises the bug guy continued to give him.

It seems that he couldn't get a beetle that was too much higher than him in rank and power. However, he now did have an excellent defensive form. It will take him a while to figure out how to fight with his new capabilities, but knowing him, it wouldn’t take too long.

It was time to go back and focus more on the 26th-floor playroom. I was also building out the skeleton of the dungeon rooms. Even if one of the rooms was massive, like truly massive, it still counted as one room. That way, I could still make 260,000 of them without having to mess up the nice order of adding 10,000 per floor.