Pov Dungeon Core

  The first week after the war was quite tough. There were so many funerals, and many I had to do all by myself. A lot of my defenders died without having any family, and I thought that even they deserved to be honored—not just in my memories, but to have a place where they could rest.

  During this week, I didn’t do much, and while some will grieve for much longer, it was time I restarted my dungeon. Monsters once again started to inhabit the dungeon rooms, and every other dungeon rule, spawner, and everything else that was shut down for me to get as much mana as possible was restarted.

  In fact, I decided to go over every dungeon rule. Now that I was diamond-ranked, I felt reestablishing them was the correct move, as they became a lot more efficient and even more precise to my wishes.

  I had also finished the last of the coins I needed to make, and while I had already given out quite a lot of them at different funerals, now the rest I deposited on the millions of graves of the fallen—those who would not be remembered by anyone but me.

  The graves took up a huge room that I made for this exact purpose, and in the end, I decided to open up this place so that anyone who wanted could visit. Many who survived today fought beside these heroes, and perhaps some of them still want to pay their respects.

  In fact, I opened up more than just this room. The beast clan had proven themselves, so they now had a few gateways that connected them to the rest of the dungeon. I also shifted the way my dungeon was connected back to how it was before the war. So now, the main entrance at the surface would once again be connected to one of my instances of the first floor, and the gateways would be active once again.

  The underground entrance got a similar makeover, and I decided to expand both of them so quite a big city could be built in both. Then I announced something no one was expecting. I opened up the surface to everyone inside once again. If they wanted to, they could leave, and new people could come in.

  My secrets were out anyway, and I suspected there was nothing that could stop me from reaching the end before anyone else. They simply would have to ramp up the time needed to keep up with my expansion.

  Speaking of that, it was time I started to understand this new rank better. I had already noticed that I was getting a lot more mana and, of course, the fact that I could store a huge amount of it. In fact, I was well over my breakthrough threshold—I could trigger it at any moment, but I no longer had to spend mana so I wouldn’t crack. There was still a limit; I could feel that I couldn’t store an endless amount of mana, but everything was now a lot more forgiving.

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  Next, I turned to the fact that somehow my mana generation was on a whole new level. Turns out that what I thought was perfection in mana collection and manipulation was just a pale imitation of what I was capable of now. The advantage I had in platinum rank was now multiplied a hundredfold. Yet, I could see where all this mana generation could go into.

  Diamond-ranked monsters were expensive—really expensive. Having dungeon rooms like I had with platinum ranks would be a challenge, but at this current moment, my diamond-ranked farms were producing more and more creatures that would boost my generation even more. And when there were enough adventurers to actually properly use diamond-ranked dungeon rooms, they would certainly be mana-positive.

  For a moment, I was distracted as I felt a diamond-ranked dungeon disappear. I guess the United Powers managed to snuff out one of the Pixies' dungeons. They still had a long road ahead, but I believed they would be the victors in that war. Perhaps even some of the adventurers and my creatures would like to join that war, and if they did, I wasn’t going to stop them.

  It felt so weird knowing that literally nothing in this world could challenge me now. Even if all the dungeons combined against me, I would eventually win—I was certain of that. The best thing was that I could even feel their fear.

  Was this how some social creatures felt when they had an alpha-type leader? I think if I wanted to, I could actually force them to do what I wanted. Fortunately for them, I didn’t care to become someone like that.

  Next, I tried to understand my trait better. Multi-fractal connections, it was something I instinctually understood immediately, but there was still subtlety and depth to it that I needed time to process and understand. I was connected to every creature and monster, every dungeon rule, and everything else I made or that was connected to my dungeon. They were like lines that spread from me.

  There was a limit to how many of these connections I could have. I had multiple skills that helped with that, like Creature Quantity and Ever-expanding Quantity. They allowed me to have more of them.

  This trait didn’t exactly allow me to have more connections directly, but what it seemed to do was combine some of them into larger lines that split off later down the line. The important part was that the large line, which bundled many smaller ones, still seemed to count as only one connection.

  It seemed like the quality and individuality of the connections dictated how many could be bundled into one. Almost all creatures needed individual lines, while monsters—and especially dungeon rules that were exactly the same—could be bundled into incredibly thick lines, sometimes combining even thousands of connections.

  This also seemed to be reducing my mana upkeep by quite a lot, as the thicker bands were a lot more mana-efficient, and since they only counted as one connection, my overall mana consumption for my connections dropped to a level I hadn’t seen in quite a while.

  It also seemed like I could manage this connection type, and with a few alterations to my monsters, I could make larger lines. It would take a bit of doing, but I could make things even more efficient.

  This just meant that I had even less to worry about in regards to mana upkeep. This diamond rank of mine also seemed to affect my skills quite a bit, allowing me to properly use them.

  While their general boosts were still consistent, now it was like I could do more things with these skills. The biggest difference came in the form of my two skills that could constantly grow. Ever-expanding Mind Matrix and Ever-expanding Quantity.

  They took a lot more mana, which meant that I would always get better with time. Perhaps I should think about adding a few more of these skills, but the first skill I should worry about making would be one that would allow me to copy the talents of not just my creatures but also the adventurers delving into my dungeon. So many of these talents were lost in this war, perhaps never to be seen again. I did not want this to happen.

  What I could also feel more of was the outside world. It seemed like I would be able to learn more about this world and my place in it, but I was already a bit exhausted from what had happened and the changes to my core and my dungeon.

  There was time to learn about that. Right now, I felt it would be better to focus on myself, as there was so much to do and even more to learn so I could be the best version of myself.