Chapter 89 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

When I finally finished expanding the 19th floor, it was almost 9500 kilometers in length and a bit over 5700 kilometers in width. I finally had a floor that was almost as large as the continent I was currently on.

It will still take me a while to get to the size of the planet, but that made me think: how many other dungeons were bigger than the whole planet? Of course, in volume, I was sorely lacking because the floor was still only 800 meters tall. There must be other dungeons that have the skill to expand space, but perhaps not.

That also didn't matter because it was time to start making a new playroom. It was always exciting, but this time I flipped the whole floor around. So now the height was the length. Like always, the upper portion was going to be cold, and the lower portion was going to be hot, but now they were a lot more stretched, which I thought would give this floor a unique look.

This will also make it so that getting from one biome to another will be fast, but you also have a large stretch of a single biome that it will take a while for any creature to get from one corner to the other.

I had only worked a little while on the bedrock of the floor when I felt Ace walk into my dungeon. The annoying person had finally come back, but when I focused on him, I was momentarily frozen in surprise. He was gold rank.

Did he go to another dungeon to rank up? I haven’t felt like this before, but I think I felt jealousy. It didn't feel good not to be able to provide someone with enough of a challenge to allow them to progress. I certainly didn’t like that feeling, but like all of these kinds of feelings, it took me a few minutes to get over it and feel better afterwards.

I looked at Ace, who was walking with his head up high, but I saw the worry on his face. Something was really wrong. Eventually, he reached the room that was isolated and only a few could access it. Multiple times he wanted to start speaking but stopped for some reason.

He also started to pace from one end of the room to another before finally slumping against one of the walls. "Hi there, dungeon," he said out loud, and this really started to worry me as he sounded like he was on the verge of giving up.

"Hello, Ace, long time no see," I answered him carefully. I didn’t understand what was going on. Ace took a few moments before he continued, "I suspect that you can already see that I am now gold rank. It was the last agreement that my soon-to-be-former king granted me. I was able to delve into the royal dungeon, by the way, which sucks compared to you, and gain my gold rank and get two additional minor breakthroughs."

"Congratulations then," I said, still confused. Ace gave a hollow laugh. "Congratulations indeed. I do not know if you know this, but people who get strong enough and reach gold rank receive a Talent. At least I got a good one.”

“It will eventually allow me to get a lot stronger, but it won't help me short term, which I was counting on. Did you feel the shaking in our contract a while back?" Ace asked all of a sudden while explaining something I was quite interested in.

"I did feel the shaking, but do dungeons also get talent?" I asked him. Ace took a little while to think before answering, "Dungeons get something different. I don’t know what it's called, but it’s similar to a talent but for dungeons. I understand it will help you be more unique in a way that you already are.”

“There are a lot of discussions about what you will get; most think it has something to do with how large you are, but no one is certain. Sometimes it's really easy to tell, like if every monster has a skill or mutations dealing with fire, it's quite clear that the dungeon will get something to help it become even more in tune with fire."

"I think we will just have to wait and see, but I can see that you did not understand what that shaking truly meant. When I reached the gold rank, it meant that we are growing too strong for the contract we currently have.”

“We will have a few more breakthroughs before it breaks; usually, it happens to dungeons at floor 25, which is when a new contract will be made between gold ranks that will last for quite a while. The problem is, I’m quite certain that the Dungeon Pixie Guild will try something at that point, which would be quite bad, especially because I wouldn’t have much support if I can even survive until then.”

The news Ace was giving me was quite troublesome, but those last words made me feel cold for the first time in my life. 'What do you mean, survive?' I asked him. I was not so worried about the dungeon Pixies as they would need to get through my core floor to even try to force a contract on me.

“There's a war coming quite soon; already armies are assembling, and when the winter is over, they will start their march and try to take the city and the ownership of the dungeon.”

The news horrified me because no matter how annoying Ace was, he had kept up his part of the deal. I was about to ask him a question before he continued.

“Now, like I said, I had hoped that I would be able to get an immediate boost of power, but there’s still hope that I will be able to win this war and become the actual ruler of this land and not just a part of a bigger Kingdom.”

“I don’t know if you have noticed, but I actually have a shadow guild of my own where I have secretly trained a lot of loyal soldiers, but I do not know if it’s enough. If the adventurers don't fight alongside us, and from what I’ve learned, not all will."

This seemed quite bad, but "I can make a quest and get the adventurer to help defend for a reward?" It wouldn’t be that hard to do and honestly, it would hardly make a dent in my mana storage. Ace, however, looked up and for the first time, I saw hope in his eyes.

"That could work," he said out loud, but I think he was just talking to himself. "If you were really willing to do this, then we will need to wait until the armies are already besieging us. I could make preparations in advance to take advantage of the sudden influx of defenders. Wait, but what kind of reward can you give? I don’t think most would be willing for a single gold coin?"

"No need to worry, I can give more than a single coin." Ace started to think, and I’m pretty sure his head temperature rose by a few degrees from all the thinking he was doing. I also started to think and went over the conversation we had. "Ace, do we have to wait for the contract to be broken by our breakthroughs, or could we make a new one before that with basically the same terms?"

Ace once again looked up, which was weird now that I think about it because he was basically inside of me, and all directions would be me. "I guess that could work, but why would the dungeon Pixies wait until it broke by itself?"

Ace continued to ponder that, but I knew because they needed to wait for the contract to end before they could force another one onto you, even if they had to give more freedom to the dungeon, it was still a slave. Then Ace asked hesitantly, "Would you want to change some of the terms?"

That made me think. Did I want to? I gave the new information to the contract ants as well. The panic when I said that I needed an answer quite soon was a bit humorous to watch. In the end, they decided that it would be best if basically the correct contract would just be renewed.

Ace had now waited for a few minutes, and I could see panic starting to appear in his eyes. "I would be fine if we just continue our current contract. I also would like to see the faces of the dungeon Pixies when they realize that no matter what they do, they won't succeed."

I saw Ace breathe out in relief. Yet, there was still a little bit of worry. "Assuming we can win the war, which I now believe we have a decent chance, the Dungeon Pixie Guild might try some drastic measures. And if they understand that they can take control, they might try to destroy you."

The words might have been serious, but I would really like to see them try. "Let them come then," I said in a sinister voice, and I could see Ace shiver. If the war looked to be going bad, I could also support them. While I couldn’t send out my monsters. Almost all of the creatures in my playrooms would be able to survive in the outside world, even if they would be a little bit weaker.