Level 10 is here at last. While refining the bog I realized I would never stop working on it unless I set a “due date” of sorts. Despite being a fervent procrastinator in my old life having a set time when, for better or worse, your goals needed to be met was helpful for organizing my priorities. So, I’d told myself I would begin working on the 2nd floor right after I reached level 10. So for now it was time to wrap up the Mangle Bog. Imagine my surprise when the voice actually rewarded my self-imposed rule.

*DUNGEON HAS REACHED MANA REQUIREMENTS FOR LEVEL 10!

*ACCESS TO SKILL “POPULATION CONTROL” GRANTED

*ACCESS TO SKILL “BOSSES” GRANTED

*MAXIMUM NUMBER OF NAMES ABLE TO BE GIVEN HAS INCREASED TO 3

*DUNGEON HAS REACHED HIDDEN REQUIREMENT!: REACH LEVEL 10 BEFORE CREATING MORE THAN FIRST FLOOR.

*ACCESS TO TRAIT “PERFECTIONIST” GRANTED

*APROPRIATE LEVEL REACHED PLEASE SELECT A FREE BASIC FLORA TYPE ORGANSIM. NEXT FREE SELECTION WILL BE AVAILABLE AT LEVEL 15.

*MANA GRASS

*MANA KELP

*MANA LILY

*MANA CORAL

*SPIDER PLANT

*POISON IVY

*CACTUS

*BAMBOO

*WHEAT

*CORN

*OAK TREE

*SPRUCE TREE

*SAKURA TREE

*COMMON BROWN MUSHROOM

*COMMON CAVE MOSS

*APPROPRIATE LEVEL REACHED PLEASE SELECT A FREE BASIC CREATURE TYPE ORGANISM. NEXT FREE SELCTION WILL BE AT LEVEL 15.

*KOBOLD

*LAMIA

*COMMON EEL

*COMMON BASS

*COMMON DOLPHIN

*SMALL REEF SHARK

*GOBLIN

*IMP

*SPRITE

*COMMON SPIDER

*COMMON BAT

*COMMON WEASEL

*DIRE RAT

*COMMON HORSE

*CLAY GOLEM

*PRAYING MANITS

*DRAGONFLY

Unnamed Dungeon Level 10

Mana Capacity 0/15,000

Mana Bank: 3,000/5,000

Passive Regen Rate 150/day

Floors: 1/2

Named Creatures: 1/3

Skills: Remote Absorption, Create Creature, Create Flora, Dungeon Status, Naming, Expansion, Terraforming, Marking, Mana Bank, Loot Control, Creature Core, Treasure, Banners, Population Control, Bosses

Traits: Fast Paced, Purposeful, Perfectionist

[Bosses] was an incredibly timely skill to receive. Just before level 10 I’d been narrowing down which of my creatures to select for that very role. Depending on the evolution I can get I plan on making the boss a large slime. About 2 days ago I’d been tending to the mushroom grove and happened to spot an interesting phenomenon that gave me inspiration.

Since the cave days I’ve struggled to find a place for slimes in the bog. I’d learned rather quickly that their bodies will absorb water until they burst like balloons. Without any of their acidic gelatin the cores holding them together dried out and they would quickly die. Obviously when most of the floor was covered in water they didn’t have much use outside the dry grove. That was until I happened to watch one sucking up water. By complete coincidence a piranha had been swimming near the shore and been sucked up into the gelatin, and it was swimming inside the slime! Due to the water concentration being so much higher than the acid’s the reinforced fish could survive within the gelatin without injury.

If this floor had a gimmick it would be “Avoid the water”. What better boss than a living body of the stuff! I’d immediately gotten to work experimenting with the species by summoning a variant of a Cave Slime influenced by both [Purposeful] and the new [Perfectionist] trait. When combined, the voice’s assistance when influencing a new creature from the standard template was exponentially increased. For the new boss I specifically gave it the power of complete selective acidity and the ability to filter and change ph levels inside it’s gelatin. By the time I was done my slime was a living, mobile aquarium of carnivores.

Pushing forward for an evolution I fed the slime around 30 rats and eventually the message came. The extra option made me wonder if everything I’d made so far was a previously existing monster, or if the voice was interpreting my original ideas and using the evolution screens to pursue them in depth.

*YOUR CAVE SLIME HAS REACHED THE EVOLUTION THRESHOLD! 3 OPTIONS AVAILABLE PLEASE SELECT AN EVOLUTION OPTION.

LARGE CAVE SLIME: A large cave slime simply improves upon every aspect of the normal cave slime especially size. EARTH SLIME: Due to spending their entire lives underground many cave slimes grow a slight affinity to earth magic. This manifests by allowing the slime to change its body into different metals enhancing defense.

*SPECIAL EVOLUTION REQUIREMENTS MET! SWARMING SLIME ADDED TO EVOLUTION OPTIONS.

SWARMING SLIME: This slime contains lifeforms inside of its gelatinous body. By spending so much time with them inside it the Swarming Slime can exact some control over the organisms inside of it. In order to create a larger community of creatures the slime grows exponentially.

Obviously I chose Swarming Slime and asked the nearby aquatic creatures to gather near the slime. Growing to its new 15 foot maximum diameter the boss absorbed a few hundred piranhas and even a very young Tidal Axolotl. Intrigued at the possibilities I allowed the child inside and watched as the slime seemed to communicate with it.

What followed was several hours of the two practicing with each other. The axolotl would pilot the entire slimes body like a mech suit and the slime could pull off combos by controlling the piranhas. Their favorite attack seemed to be using two large water whips that stretch out from the slimes main body. These whips could already hit with an immense amount of force and if blocked the frenzied piranhas inside would deal further damage. When they stopped to take a break I encouraged them to practice with a net design in the future.

Being 15 feet tall and wide the boss was obviously rather slow. A small fix was possible when the axolotl fired large torrents of water to push the main body around, but the slime’s body mass would shrink in exchange. Said water could be reabsorbed later once the fight was over or upon respawning. Along with a custom item when killed this respawn timer was the advantage of naming a creature a boss. From what I could tell the time taken was relative to the boss’s strength to the floor it resides on. My Swarming Slime took an even 30 minutes to respawn in perfect health.

The skill would grant me 1 free boss per floor and I could spend an increasingly exponential cost to add mini bosses. I learned this after naming the Piranha Queen as a mini boss and spent 2,500 mana in total. Since she was not the “true boss” of the floor her respawn timer was a full 12 hours. Her only other changes was further growth from 3 to 5 feet in length and a special loot option.

PARASITIC FANG NECKLACE: A necklace containing 5 of the Piranha Queen’s own teeth. These can be used 1 time to put another sapient under your direct control for 5 hours. After the 5 hours the sapient will realize that they were under your control and a faint purple scar will appear where the fang was implanted. Said scar can be removed with sufficient healing magic and the same sapient cannot be affected by fangs of the same necklace.

Of course the Swarming Slime also had a special item I had a feeling would become highly sought after.

BITING BREW: A powerful healing potion that will chase down an illness and feast on it. However the one who ingests this powerful brew must be prepared, for they will feel the bites of hundreds of piranhas swimming all throughout their body. This brew will not kill the healing target but they may find themselves wishing for death.

To finish off the Swarming Slime project I carved out a semicircle just large enough to contain the boss where my shack had been. Until now the building served me well and I hadn’t wanted to spend the mana removing it, but it no longer fit the vision I held for the first floor. Underneath this new pond I placed the staircase down to the core room. Ordering the slime to sit atop the stairs, and adding some lily pads to the top, my trap was complete.

Deep inside the mushroom section of the bog awaited a small clearing. In the center a clear body of water teaming with the piranhas found everywhere else was waiting. Some would spot the staircase to the floor below and immediately attempt to dive down confident they could heal from the piranhas after passing through. But those who failed to learn the main lesson of this floor would quickly be dissolved in the slime’s body. A great first boss in my opinion.

Before making my choices for the next floor I spent some time testing the other new skill [Population Control]. This also bought some time for my mana to grow before working on the next ecosystem.

Opening up the new tab in my [Dungeon Status] I found a complete list of every creature I could summon to this point. Everything from flies to Tempest Hares was listed alphabetically and had sliders beside them. Moving them around would set a minimum number of creatures that the skill would ensure populated each floor. If I set 100 Timber Wolves to always exist under the Mangle Bog tab, the second 99 existed it would spend my mana to summon a new wolf.

Sadly [Population Control] would not remake my monsters for free. This was a skill meant to assist me in maintenance rather than power up the dungeon directly. I had already designed well hidden areas for the residents to breed safely in like the old fish tunnels but this skill would hopefully ensure my floors never felt desolate.

Having now finished the Mangle Bog I turned to address the free selections. This is the first selection since the original I haven’t known what to grab. For the flora I’m divided between Poison Ivy and Corn while several creatures stand out as potential candidates.

When choosing the flora Poison Ivy seems the obvious choice for a dungeon designed to kill people to select. But I had a concept for Corn that would blow simple skin agitating leaves away if it worked out. To help me come to a decision I sent out Mary and the male Anomalous Anaconda, who was a little annoyed to be pulled away from his nest of 13 fresh eggs, to find any of the options available. Mary would hunt through the forest and possibly steal some corn from town if she could reach it, while the anaconda was in charge of checking near the rivers. Both could carry large quantities within their shadows so I encouraged them to be generous.

While waiting I looked over the creature choices I was confident they wouldn’t find in depth.

Lamias, if my memory serves, are half snake half human hybrids. They sound pretty interesting as unlike kobolds or goblins they should have human like intelligence. However reptiles won’t do well on my next floor so they will be left as a possible future choice along with the flammable insects dragonflies and praying mantis.

Common Dolphins would be used for the first floor if I chose them. I have some memories of pink dolphins that were known for attacking people in the Amazon river, so they sounded promising. If they could live in the piranha infested amazon I’m sure they could survive in my bog. But I think that my bog is already teeming with so many different species that adding any more would make it too busy.

Common Spiders I just want to find somewhere not choose from the list. Honestly I think it’s incredible that I haven’t found them yet considering this all started inside a cave. They might not be useful for the upcoming 2nd floor but spiders should be an incredibly versatile species to tinker with.

Common Bats are another one that I think I should be able to find during this hunt. They could be usable soon, but much like spiders I’d rather not spend my free selection on something so readily available in nature

Common Horses will be heavily considered as my imagination could do a lot with Pegasi or elemental horses. The opposing argument being that I could almost garuntee I would earn horses naturally in the future. The people coming to raid me won’t take horses into the dungeon but I’m sure Mary could steal one for me from town or right outside the entrance. So this was really a matter of wanting to wait or not.

Finally were the clay golems. These would be awful for my next floor, they would melt after all, but if these golems evolved they could become something super interesting. In video games golems become more challenging as the materials their bodies are made of change. So potentially I could evolve them to get more useful materials to work with later on.

Eventually Mary and the anaconda came back with some expected finds hidden inside their shadows.

*NEW CREATURE HAS BEEN ABSORBED, “FRUIT BAT” ADDED TO CREATE CREATURE LIST.

*NEW CREATURE HAS BEEN ABSORBED, “POISON IVY” ADDED TO CREATE FLORA LIST.

*NEW CREATURE HAS BEEN ABSORBED, “MINK” ADDED TO CREATE CREATURE LIST.

*NEW CREATURE HAS BEEN ABSORBED, “WOLF SPIDER” ADDED TO CREATE CREATURE LIST.

*NEW CREATURE HAS BEEN ABSORBED, “SALMON” ADDED TO CREATE CREATURE LIST.

*NEW CREATURE HAS BEEN ABSORBED, “CATFISH” ADDED TO CREATE CREATURE LIST.

*NEW CREATURE HAS BEEN ABSORBED, “REDWOOD” ADDED TO CREATE FLORA LIST.

Mary and the snake bowed their heads in apology when presenting me their kills.

“Apologies Master, I was only able to find the stingy one. The corn you wanted is too far away for me to reach before my core runs out of mana.”

At this the anaconda hissed sadly in agreement.

Trying to act like a good leader I ignored their apology and instead praised them “You both have nothing to apologize for. Even having the ability to remove options from the selection at all is a blessing. I promise that your efforts will make the second floor even better.”

At this Mary and the snake seemed to ease a bit and both retreated to their nest and corner. With my choices narrowed I selected “Corn” and turned to the creatures.

While the finding had made my flora option obvious I had no idea what creature I wanted now. Fruit Bats and Wolf Spiders would give me enough room to grow from with [Perfectionist] and [Purposeful] so no need for common bat or common spider. I think after running through the idea that I’ll pass on Common Dolphin as well. I’d like to leave my bog as is for when the next invaders come. Of course if any problems arise I’ll fix them, but none are evident as of now. Horses I can wait for since I’m 100% sure I can absorb one relatively soon. That leaves Lamias and Clay golems.

I have no idea how I could attain these except through this menu as neither are creatures found on Earth. Both would also be useless on my 2nd floor unless they evolved enough. Either pick will probably have to wait until the third floor which I haven’t even unlocked yet. So its either choose the creatures that have human level intelligence or ones that will no doubt expand my material lists…

After almost an hour of debating I finally made my decision “Clay Golem”. It came down to a simple fact. Lamias are reptiles. Reptiles don’t do well with fire. Clay Golems could potentially withstand the heat long enough to survive and evolve.

All lingering choices and projects on the first floor completed I turned my attention to creating a new ecosystem of flame.