Pov Dungeon Core

  My awareness came like a snap. Everything felt so different, but I simply didn’t have time. I reconnected with my dungeon—it happened almost instantly. Information bombarded me. I had no trouble understanding it all, although it still took me a few moments to go through everything.

  It seemed like the battles on the surface and underground were over, but a battle for my survival was happening right now, and they needed my help.

  So many creatures and adventurers were dead, but I pushed those thoughts aside for a moment—there were still some that could be saved. I had plenty of diamond-rank patterns that would be perfect for fighting, and I did not hesitate to start creating them. Making them was different. They took so much, but I had plenty to spare, which I was happy about.

  In the last room—a huge room meant for drowning my enemies in monsters—so many creatures and adventurers were trying to save me from those bastard Pixies. It took me a moment to understand how they made it this far. So my ‘My World’ skill wasn’t perfect, but now that I’m diamond, no one should be able to do that again.

  Inside the room, my new diamond-ranked monsters appeared, joining the fight. As I was constantly making new ones, I also needed to make a new pattern. I made a simple adventurer, made it diamond-ranked, and added the best talents and skills to make it the best healer I could on short notice.

  The fighting continued, but the Pixies were now on the back foot. Their leader once again activated a beam spell—the last one had almost killed me—but this time, Rafe was on point, and the spell only lasted about five seconds before it was interrupted once again.

  More and more healers were made, and they quickly started saving anyone that could be saved. The first one I created was as close to the bug guy as I could make. He was terribly injured, but there was still life inside his body. If he could be saved, it would be a long journey to recovery, as that beam spell was truly something else.

  With every passing minute, more of my allies were saved. None of them fell any longer, as I had already created over 500 diamond-ranked monsters that, with the help of the creatures and adventurers, were finally starting to slaughter the exhausted and overwhelmed Pixies.

  Some of them tried to use their innate skill or spell—whatever they had—that allowed them to teleport to and away from my dungeon core. But ‘My World’ skill, now powered by my diamond-ranked core, made that escape impossible.

  Some of them tried to surrender, but there would be no quarter given. In just 10 minutes—really fast for a diamond-ranked battle—only the leader of the Pixies and some of his honour guards were still alive. I communicated that we should not let up.

  No matter how much I hated them, their last stand was valiant. They held out for nearly an hour under the combined onslaught of my monsters and my allies. What finally broke wasn’t their magic but the spirit of their leader.

  It happened suddenly. The defensive spell he was holding was dropped when his hands fell. He was distraught. On his face, I could see anguish. There was good reason for it—his choices meant that his entire species would go extinct.

  The way they had modified their species meant no dungeon could copy them, not even me, and if I understood it correctly, the other three great powers had launched a full campaign against them.

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  While some of them would survive, I was certain that their existing reproduction problems, including the loss of 99% of their population, meant there would be no recovery.

  With the defensive spell gone, the combined attacks partially vaporized anyone still alive inside. Diamond-ranked bodies were quite resilient, so some parts of them still survived, but none of them were alive.

  With that, the last Pixies in my dungeon died, and I immediately informed all of my dungeon of that fact. We won. Now it was time for celebration and mourning as we had lost many.

  I was happy to see that the bug guy would survive, but he wasn't the only one to throw his body in the way of that spell. I was happy to see that Carl and his companions made it out, although Ziiipe lost an arm and Vinny had a missing part in his leg. Carl also lost one of his children, but I managed to save two others who were close to death. There was no one here who hadn't lost someone.

  It surprised me to see Vivian here, supporting his grandfather, as he was barely able to keep standing, but he was still alive. It seems like they volunteered along with a few others who were diamond-ranked from their clan.

  It was hard to watch so many people grieving, but like always, I memorized everything so I would never forget. I think once again I should make coins with the faces of the fallen, but this time I should make them out of the finest mana crystal I could use.

  So, slowly and ever so painfully, I started to carve into my very core. My core repaired itself quite fast, but the pain was still there, and I think I need that. I was going to have to make so many coins, and carving the likenesses of all who had fallen was a more somber task than I expected, but they deserved it. Not only did they protect their loved ones, they protected me with their lives.

  There wasn’t much more I could do for them, and while I could bring them back. It would be a version of them that would never change. I also knew that basically no one wanted that. So, I will honour their choices.

  It was a different thing when I wanted a version of them to be one of my protectors, either for my core floor or the outer defenses. It was an interesting quirk of almost everyone. None of them wanted me to make a version of them that would replace them, but if it was for my protection, I could make as many of them as I wanted, and they would be proud of it.

  The leaders of my forces started to give their reports. While I knew most of it already, it was good to have their viewpoints. One thing was clear—even if the three great powers, or the United Powers as they called themselves now, only chose to attack the Pixies because of their own needs and didn’t really care what happened to me. Their choice still most likely saved my life. So, it was time for me to end the most direct threat to them.

  I communicated with every creature out there that had the capability of releasing the small pattern into the world. The new one that everyone could sense and the old one. In unison, they all destroyed the small pattern, making sure that not a trace of it would escape into the world. I suspect that the United Powers and I will not have a friendly relationship, but I think we could have an amicable one.

  There were still a lot of them outside on the surface, their armies ready for anything that might happen. I sent messengers to inform them that the leader of the Pixies was dead, along with everyone else sent to kill me.

  They will also convey that all the small pattern carriers destroyed their samples of the small pattern and that none of the undetectable version was out there. All they had to do was kill the ones they could see, and it would be done.

  What I also did was send out about 200 of the 250 melters we had captured during the previous siege so they could use them against the Pixies' dungeons. They were still worried about the small pattern. It made sense, but it also seemed like at least the Beasts trusted me enough to believe I would not destroy this world. The gift of the melters also helped mollify others, so slowly their army started backing up and leaving to fight the remnants of the Pixies.

  We had some fixing to do in the outer defenses and the labyrinth, but I decided that we could wait at least a week for everyone to get some rest. I, however, would not get any, as I couldn’t stop advancing.

  There were still the other dungeons to worry about, the ones closer to the end, but I should still have an overwhelming advantage, especially because I was not going to be making too many diamond-ranked monsters. There was just no need. The excess mana was better spent on expanding and building up my floors.

  When I started to expand the 76th floor, I found a limit to my power. I didn’t know it existed, but there seemed to be a limit to how fast I could expand a floor. It’s just that I hadn’t reached it yet in platinum rank, as I hadn’t been strong enough.

  Well, that will change some plans. I quickly ran through the calculations, and I should still make it to the end before anyone else, but now I had two more things to do besides just working on my defenses and expanding new floors.

  It seems like it was time to start making a floor for diamond ranks, and the 76th one I was currently expanding seemed to be a good choice. I wondered how big I could make it because I could feel that I could expand every other floor once again, meaning I would have another jump in floor space. Hopefully, it will not be too big; otherwise, I might run into trouble in my rush to the end against the other dungeons.

  Finally, I also had time to look inside of me to see the increase in my ‘Dungeon Gateway’ skill, which was now rank C. I also had a new trait. This time, it seemed like I could understand a lot more of it instantly.

  As I focused more on it, the blurry words started to become clear, and it didn’t take long before I could start understanding what I was seeing. Then, all of a sudden, the words revealed themselves, and I gained an understanding of my new trait.

  Multi-Fractal Connections.

  Huh, I really thought I was going to get something that would increase my floor size.