Pov Dungeon Core

  I watched the fight between the fast diamond rank and Ace quite anxiously. Ismael was ready to interfere, but in the end, it wasn’t needed. Ace was able to handle business. I enjoyed that turn of phrase. The adventurers were quite useful for me in getting used to the type of language they spoke. Watching the fight unfold, I was a little bit surprised by the devastation caused, but on the other hand, it was quite a good demonstration of what was to come.

  Ace’s wife was also someone I was quite glad about. She did something that changed a lot of opinions for almost everyone in his nation. She was able to show the fight in its entirety in different places in the nation, but especially in the main city. I helped a bit, as I created large crystals that Ace’s soldiers took into the city, allowing many to see the fight and, more importantly, the conversation before the fight.

  If anyone had doubts, they were erased by that fight, and while a large portion of the remaining people who still hadn’t entered my dungeon didn’t like the idea of leaving their homes behind, they also started to understand that staying here most likely meant their death.

  Many rushed into the dungeon during the fight, but most were now returning to get the stuff they had dropped to get to safety faster. Everything was still incredibly chaotic, and I was kind of sad to see so many adventurers deciding to leave my dungeon while they still could. Of course, I understood the reasoning, and I was glad that most seemed to be deciding that they wanted to stay.

  It was a bit overwhelming to hear so much conversation going on about this topic. Never have I heard so many people speaking about one thing, and it was kind of creepy how most of the conversations went exactly the same way.

  The most worried were the people who were closer to the surface, as they were the most threatened whenever an invasion happened. While the powers of this world might decide to spare those living on the surface, everyone was certain that staying in this dungeon would mean a death sentence if I ever failed and fell.

  I was able to alleviate those worries quite a lot as I assured everyone that no invader was going to use the normal pathway toward my core. There wasn’t even a lot for me to do, as I was already prepared to make these changes at a moment’s notice. The only reason I still hadn’t was because many adventurers were still using the main entrance to escape or to enter the dungeon.

  My hope was that, before I needed to change my entrance, everyone would have already left or entered. But if needed, at a moment’s notice, I could change things to protect myself against possible diamond-rank incursions.

  Of course, they might bring dungeon melters, but honestly, I was excited about it and hoped they actually did bring them. I kind of wanted to see what would happen when they tried to punch a hole in my defenses.

  Hopefully, I could see this, but at a later date when I was even more ready. In fact, I was even looking forward to them trying to invade me the normal way. They would get quite the surprise, and I would quite like to see the panic in their eyes when they realized conquering me would not be easy.

  We were also currently debating what our first response would be. Many were advocating for showing strength, but I wasn’t so sure that it was a good move, at least at the start.

  During the short time it was open, the room where everyone who wanted could attempt to get to diamond rank was also named by the people using it. They called it ‘The Line.’ I wasn’t so sure about the name, but I also wasn’t going to force something else if the name came about naturally.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  A few of my strongest creatures had already reached diamond rank, thanks to the fact that they were so close to it to begin with. This was another reason why a lot of advisors were recommending a show of strength immediately. Many were certain that the most likely size of the delegation they were going to send here first, we were going to be able to match them diamond rank for diamond rank.

  Once again, I thought that they would take more time to come here and come with a bigger force, and quite a few agreed with me. In the end, I think that they will not be underestimating me too much. While most of the diamond ranks were quite arrogant, I was quite certain that the old monsters had a little bit more wisdom.

  There was also the problem of the girl that we had as a prisoner. Most didn’t know what to do with her. The vocal minority brought up that we should keep her as a hostage, but I had already given my word, and I will not be breaking it. I will, however, wait until the evacuations are done. Hopefully, they are done before anyone else arrives, but then I would just be setting her free.

  My firm conviction made everyone stop arguing that point, but then someone brought up a more interesting idea. While she knew somewhat about me, they were all guesses at best. Perhaps it would be a good idea to accidentally leak some information—be it correct or false, we currently didn’t know—but the idea intrigued me and most others.

  Everyone also disliked the fact that our spy network basically ceased to exist in one day. While a lot of devices were left behind, they would be discovered eventually, and, of course, they could only gather passive information, unlike proper spies. Still, I didn’t want any of my creatures to be caught and forced to kill themselves or subjected to horrible ways of information gathering.

  While all of this was going on, I was still focusing on my new floor and, more specifically, the creatures in it. The slimes were quite interesting, and I’m starting to think that perhaps they are actually the key for me to figure out how proper consciousness is formed and how that consciousness becomes sapient. I’m pretty sure that when one of them reaches diamond rank, I could actually have a conversation with it, but I would have to wait and see.

  If I do figure all of this out thanks to this pattern, not only would this pattern have given me a way to get diamond-ranked creatures so I could continue to advance quickly, it would also have given me a way to properly modify other patterns so I could make even more efficient farms without the worry of subjecting my creatures to horrible fates that they would actually remember.

  Because of all this, I have reduced my presence as much as possible in the dungeon rooms and basically every playroom to the level of just maintaining the current status quo and performing the most minimal passive observation I can get away with. It is not a situation that I enjoy, but it must be done.

  A large portion of me was focusing on the new floor and the creatures in it, and as soon as I had the opportunity, I would break through to the next floor. The biggest portion of me was focusing on defenses, mainly to detect any incursion and to continue shoring up my defenses. The third biggest part of me was actually focusing on the labyrinth.

  At first, the labyrinth was just a pet project of mine, something I found interesting to make. Who didn’t like the idea of a practically endless labyrinth that was constantly shifting—at least fake shifting?

  I was still quite proud of the way I figured out how to do that. The special gateways that didn’t look like gateways constantly shifted their connecting points, giving the illusion that the labyrinth was in constant change and you never knew where you would end up if you started to traverse it.

  There were many creatures there that had lost their way and were now forever trapped in the labyrinth. Currently, I was focusing on making some truly dangerous areas in there, but mainly it was still quite desolate.

  There simply hasn’t been enough time for it to properly fill up with lost creatures. For now, what I did was remove all the access points into the labyrinth from my playrooms and dungeon rooms and made sure that the labyrinth connected with this specific entrance I purposely made to my core floor. This entrance led into the deadly labyrinth I built for my core protection.

  The reason why I did this was so that I could connect the large labyrinth with all the entrances I had on the surface, making it impossible for invaders to delve into the regular dungeon rooms. They would need to move through a constantly shifting labyrinth that was ridiculously large. All of the walls were now reinforced with my platinum-ranked power, which meant that even diamond ranks couldn’t simply break through them.

  Distance was a defense on its own, but I had no doubt that diamond ranks could find their way to my core floor eventually. Still, I think this should give us enough time for me to get strong enough that it wouldn’t matter if every diamond rank in the world reached my core floor.

  We were also quite certain that groups of diamond ranks would be separated in the labyrinth, and thanks to my help and the control I have over every gateway, we could send strike teams to take care of the separated diamond ranks.

  Even I think this war, if they truly want to go through with it, will not be determined by big battles or strike forces that will end the fight quickly. No, this will be a war of attrition, and they are fighting a dungeon that could literally make anything from mana.

  I’m starting to understand the reasons why they subjugated my kind better and better. That still didn’t mean I wouldn’t do everything in my power to stay free. They should honestly just make a deal with me, and if I actually have to become the world’s will, I’m sure we could make a deal on how the next iteration of this world should look.