“But before doing that, the most important thing. Of course, summoning new minions. Especially with the new achievement. I get three slots to summon new minions. Although those three slots are specific to a particur species. It's still a great thing.” Ordis muttered as he felt that if he had her body he would be dancing happily.

  “Boosting all statuses by simply having every minion of all three species is easy.” Ordis spoke as he already knew what new minion he was summoning. After all, he only had one type of minion in reptiles and amphibians so the choice was obvious.

  Mantis – 8 Mana Reserve per summon

  Gecko – 9 Mana Reserve per summon

  Frog – 8 Mana Reserve per summon

  Ordis marveled at the new minions under his command. Though they were some of the more expensive ones to summon, their stats intrigued him. He was especially excited to see how they would evolve over time. Each new minion type expanded his arsenal, adding yers of strategy to his dungeon’s growing ecosystem. Currently, he had two spider minions occupying valuable slots, and the thought of repcing one with something more formidable crossed his mind.

  “I mean, just look at these stats!” Ordis muttered, examining D. Mantis’s profile. Mantises were ambush predators, striking with terrifying speed when their prey wandered too close. Their bright green coloration made them blend effortlessly with dense foliage, making them deadly hunters in forests and gardens alike.

  Name: Dungeon Mantis – Level 1Level: 1Rank: LesserMana Cost: 8 Mana Reserve per summon (lv1)Lifespan: 12 days (unless sustained by the dungeon)Size: 8.5 cm Attributes:Strength: 18

  Speed: 15

  Defense: 12

  Magic: 6

  Intelligence: 10

  Abilities:Rending Bdes – The mantis' forelegs are naturally serrated, allowing it to deal deep, bleeding wounds to enemies upon striking.

  Ambush Predator (Passive) – Gains a 15% damage boost when attacking from concealment or striking an unaware enemy.

  Chitinous Reflexes (Passive) – A natural agility boost allows the mantis to react 10% faster to incoming attacks, improving its ability to dodge.

  Silent Stalker – The mantis can move without making a sound, making it harder for enemies to detect it before it strikes.

  As he analyzed the data, a nostalgic memory surfaced. When he was a child, he and his friends would eagerly search for insects like mantises and grasshoppers. The real fun came when they caught them—especially when they fed the helpless grasshoppers to the mantises, watching in awe as nature took its course. Of course, their parents had always scolded them, immediately ordering them to release their little captives.

  “Ah… those were the good times.” Ordis allowed himself a brief moment of reminiscence before snapping back to reality.

  Shaking off the nostalgia, he turned his focus back to the battlefield. Since he had two spider he could fuse them and have another empty slot.

  “For that st minion slot… I want a snake,” he mused. A reptile minion would add more bance to his growing army. But for now, his attention was on something else—his trap creation skill.

  “System, can you give me a detailed expnation of the Trap Creation skill?” If traps could prove to be a reliable strategy, then mastering them would be the next step in strengthening his dungeon.

  [Trap Creation] – Small Pitfall Trap

  A basic but effective dungeon trap designed to catch unsuspecting prey by dropping them into a concealed hole. While simple in design, it can be surprisingly useful when pced strategically.

  Effect & Functionality:Hidden Pitfall: A small, shallow hole (0.5 to 1 meter deep) is created in the dungeon floor and covered with a thin yer of dirt, leaves, or dungeon-crafted camoufge.

  Weak Surface Layer: The covering material is designed to colpse when stepped on, dropping the target into the hole.

  Trap Reset: After activation, Ordis can manually reset the trap or allow it to reset automatically by spending half the original mana cost (2 Mana).

  Mechanics & Usage:Size & Depth: Small enough to trap small to medium-sized creatures (lizards, frogs, insects, and potentially small mammals). Too shallow to seriously injure rger creatures.

  Trigger Mechanism: Activated when a creature steps on the trap’s weak surface. The weight limit can be adjusted slightly.

  Effect Duration: Trapped creatures remain stuck until they escape, get rescued, or are finished off by minions.

  Mana Cost: 2 Mana per Pitfall Trap

  Manufacturing time Duration: 15 second per Trap

  Escape Difficulty:

  Small creatures (frogs, geckos, insects) struggle to climb out, especially if walls are smooth.

  Medium creatures (rats, rger lizards) have a higher chance of escaping by jumping or cwing at the walls.

  “Oh, so that’s how it works. I can’t just make traps appear instantly, huh…” Ordis muttered as he observed the details of his Small Pitfall Trap skill. The creation process took at least fifteen seconds, which wasn’t long, but in the middle of a battle, it could feel like an eternity. With only a few Trap Creation skills at his disposal, he had no real frame of reference for how long more complex traps might take, but he could already make an educated guess.

  “I’m betting the bigger and more intricate the trap, the longer it takes… and the more mana it drains,” he mused, shifting his focus to his current predicament. The Sun Skink Lizard was a far more challenging opponent than the usual small prey. His flying minions—D. Mosquito, D. Parasite Wasp, and D. Butterfly—were effective at overwhelming smaller targets, but against something this size, their strengths y in debuffing and weakening rather than dealing direct damage.

  D. Butterfly, in particur, was purely a support unit. While her buffs and debuffs were invaluable, she cked any offensive power. This meant that the bulk of the damage-dealing fell onto D. Ant and her army of fifteen soldier ants, a role they had pyed before against geckos. However, their approach wasn’t a straightforward assault—it was a calcuted sacrifice.

  These ants weren’t meant to win in a head-on battle. Instead, they would swarm and harass the enemy, distracting it just long enough for the trap to activate and for Ordis’ flying minions to weaken it further. The real victory would come after the lizard had fallen into the pit, vulnerable to their relentless attacks.

  And if a few soldier ants were lost along the way? Well, Ordis didn’t mind. His dungeon would simply spawn more, each slightly stronger than the st, growing under the influence of his Dungeon Blessing. This battle wasn’t just about taking down a Sun Skink Lizard—it was about testing his traps, tactics, and the very limits of his minions.

  “Oh, this feels just like when we fought the gecko.” Ordis observed as his fifteen soldier ants charged fearlessly toward the Sun Skink Lizard. Their tiny bodies, measuring 10% rger than the biggest ants on Earth, were still far from the ideal size Ordis envisioned, but they were already superior to their natural counterparts.

  The lizard, however, didn’t even register them as a threat. To it, these oversized ants were nothing more than a free snack scurrying toward its feet. With casual ease, the skink flicked out its tongue and snatched one into its mouth, crushing it in an instant. Another unfortunate ant was fttened beneath its cwed foot, its tiny body unable to resist the reptile’s strength.

  Despite these losses, Ordis wasn’t concerned. His size-enhancing dungeon blessing was working exactly as intended. Every day, the creatures within his domain were subtly growing rger, including not just his minions, but the wild insects that roamed the dungeon as well. Though some of these untamed bugs could pose a danger to his forces, they also provided more mana when consumed, making them an overall benefit to his expanding ecosystem.

  Reptiles and amphibians, on the other hand, were new arrivals to his domain. Ordis hadn’t yet seen proof that his size-enhancement would affect them the same way. But if it did… then things would get very interesting.

  For now, though, the battle continued. Even if the skink didn’t take the ants seriously, it still needed time to deal with them all. And that dey was exactly what Ordis had been counting on. The more distracted the lizard became, the better his trap and flying minions could work to bring it down.

  “To make sure this lizard doesn’t escape, I’d better send in D. Butterfly,” Ordis muttered, watching as his minion activated Wings of Serenity. This skill was invisible to other, and so while the lizard wouldn’t see her and her skill, Ordis could track the subtle shimmer of powder trails swirling through the air via his system interface.

  Meanwhile, the Sun Skink Lizard was still toying with the ants, seemingly unaware of the rger threat looming over it. Fifteen soldier ants scurried around its feet, their tiny mandibles snapping at its scales, but the lizard wasn’t taking them seriously. It flicked its tongue zily, crushed a few underfoot, and seemed almost amused by the persistent, albeit harmless, swarm.

  Ordis smirked. “Perfect. It hasn’t noticed the trap.”

  Since the battle began, he had been channeling his mana into trap creation, steadily constructing a small pitfall beneath the battlefield. Unlike intelligent creatures, animal instincts alone weren’t enough to sense a dungeon’s construction in progress—not unless it was something gringly obvious. So while the lizard remained distracted, the ground beneath it was being silently reshaped.

  D. Ant had remained on standby, waiting for the right moment. If Ordis had sent him into battle from the start, the skink might have recognized a real threat and fled. But with the ants acting as cannon fodder, the reptile remained in pce… right where Ordis wanted it.

  A system alert pinged. Trap Complete.

  “Finally here…” Ordis watched as the trap sprang to life, the thin yer of surface dirt colpsing in an instant. The lizard barely had time to react before it dropped straight into the pit, nding with a dull thud at the bottom of the one-meter hole.

  “Oh, that’s really convenient.” Ordis grinned, pleased with how smoothly everything had gone.

  The skink thrashed and hissed, scrambling against the pit’s walls. But it was too te

  “Alright, D. Ant—finish it.”

  Age : 8 Day 10 Hour 30 Minute

  Mana Reserves : 119 / ??? (Capacity Expanding)