Chapter 55 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

I didn't like what I was contemplating. I had pushed my frozen floor down once before so I could create my ocean floor, but now I was thinking about pushing it down again and turning the 16th floor playroom into a cave-like environment instead.

The idea came to me briefly after I started to look over the book I had gotten from the bug person. In the book, it turned out that many of the new bugs preferred dark environments, and almost half actually lived in a cave-like environment.

Now, this wasn't significant enough to actually change my mind, and I still planned on making a frozen floor. However, about a month and a bit later, the annoying person made a huge delivery. He brought many plants that turned out to be different types of mushrooms.

There were also interesting animals; one was called a mole, which had some of the worst eyesight I've come across in an animal that could still see. More interestingly, they actually lived underground and hunted worms and other such creatures.

There were also some different kinds of moss and a few other plants, and one of the mushrooms actually glowed with an eerie blue light. It turns out that most of them came from a cave that was on the annoying person's land but was only recently discovered.

"Appreciation," I remember saying to him, which seemed to improve his mood. It seems he worked hard to make up for his previous outburst, and I didn't mind it for long because, thanks to him, I would be able to fix one of my weaknesses. Making my core floor was going to be an interesting challenge.

But now, back to the question: do I push back the frozen floor? I want to do that because I already have cold environments on other floors, and while I do have caves, they aren't really filled with much.

Most have moss and a few different types of mushrooms, but nothing else. One thing I could do was start to add these new finds to the already existing floors, and I'm quite sure the kobolds will appreciate this the most.

It took me another three months to make a decision. I decided to turn the 16th-floor playroom into a maze of caverns. One of the reasons was because all the new stuff I got was incredibly interesting, and I wanted to see how it would evolve in an even better environment for them.

However, the main reason was that making a cave floor would take a lot less time because I wouldn’t have to remove almost 250 metres worth of stone from the top of the floor. This would mean I could finish this floor much faster.

Then, I could enjoy watching what's happening in my dungeon even more. There was going to be a war in the ant nation soon, and I really wanted to watch that. The Arden goblins were at an interesting point in their development.

I think the tribal leader or the village elder might become more like a noble and not just a leader as before. This would be a momentous occasion for their civilization because it would be their first step towards becoming a proper nation.

Not to mention the adventurers, who would gain access to almost 40,000 rooms. The exploration, the triumphs, and failures that would follow would be marvellous to witness. Then, let's not forget the expansion of the upper floors.

Would the war of the four ant nations be forgotten or stop completely when their ancestral lands expand by a significant amount? Not to mention the other playrooms, especially where the orcs reside. Their bodies hold so much potential for power, yet currently, they're so limited with the resources they have. What would happen when they gain access to more?

I was genuinely giddy about what the future would hold, so the idea of spending less time finishing the 16th-floor playroom was quite attractive. All of this motivated me to push myself harder to get everything done as soon as possible. However, I also made sure not to cut corners. I couldn't compromise on quality just to speed things up; that wouldn't be fitting for a being who could live forever.

POV Tristan

I finally made it to the 16th-floor hub station. The fight to get here was harder than I expected, but I guess that made sense since I haven’t been a silver rank for more than a week.

I should have listened to the advice of that old fart and grinded my skills a bit more on the 15th floor. "Screw him, I made it." Ouch, speaking out loud was a bad idea, but damn, he was so annoying, and I’m pretty sure he bet money that I wasn't going to make it here alive.

I lifted my hand from the wound I was holding, and it seems like it was still bleeding a bit. Shit, it seems that the healing potions I have aren’t up to the task of properly healing a silver rank. Buying better potions was going to become expensive, but hiring a healer would be even more so.

Why weren’t there more scholarly people here who could see the majesty of the different ruins in this dungeon? I swear I can almost grasp the language that's written on them, but others who are even a little bit like me are convinced they're just random scribbles made for atmosphere.

Fortunately, they couldn’t deny it when, in one of the ruins, I found a bit of treasure. To be honest, if there were more gold coins, then others would choose this method of gaining wealth instead of fighting for skill-enhanced materials. At least some were willing to listen to me a little bit now a days.

It was good that a small village was around the paired gateways of the hub station. It was even better that there seemed to be a few healers waiting for people who made it this far. I probably wasn’t the only one who got here injured.

I walked up to the tent that had the healing god's mark on it, and even before I got too close, I heard, "We have a patient." What followed was three people rushing out of the tent, who started to ask me a million questions.

They were professional at what they did, and in less than an hour, I was patched up enough that I could leave without the healers trying to stop me. They offered their services without demanding compensation, but only the rudest people didn't leave a donation in the bowl situated just at the entrance of the tent.

I placed a silver coin into the bowl and saw the head healer give me a satisfied smile. Definitely overpaid that one. I did some calculations in my head and remembered what they did to me, so next time I would have a better idea of how much I would need to pay.

Taking the paired gateways, I reached the proper hub. Immediately, the sounds of civilization were all around me, but I didn't enjoy it, not at all. Unfortunately, I was going to need to endure this for a while before I could head out.

There should be proper maps of the surrounding areas. Hopefully, I could find a few people who could point me in interesting directions. Shit, before that, I would need to actually do some training; otherwise, I might just die during my exploration.

Then came the most hated thing I needed to take care of: talking with the stupid shadow guilds. The more interesting curiosities usually happened to be in their territories. This floor was a nightmare for my coin pouch, as they could be quite greedy about allowing people into their land.